Dave Nevison's horse racing tips for Cheltenham on Wednesday

Last season’s highest rated two-year-old, Native Trail, runs in the bet365 Craven Stakes on a cracking card at Newmarket on Wednesday afternoon.

I will be hosting the Racing TV Club Day at Cheltenham, so have focussed my tips on a really good jumping card.

Met trouble in running at the Cheltenham Festival but still managed a really good effort beaten 8 ½ lengths by the winner Coole Cody and, 7lb better off, Sam Thomas’s seven-year-old gelding is fancied to reverse the form.

After he won a small race on his debut for Thomas, I had high hopes that this horse would go up through the ranks but that hasn’t really happened. He has run well here, confirming he runs this course well, and has been tried at Grade One level, so presumably the trainer had a similar view to me.

There is still plenty of time for him to progress and, hopefully, this is a step along the way. Thomas has had a great season and his runners continue to do well.

Richard Bandey has been one of the names of this season, improving runners from other stables almost routinely, and he looks to have brought this seasoned handicapper back to form judged on his first run for the stable last time.

Mister Malarky had lost his way for Colin Tizzard but a change of scenery and a break for a wind op saw him run a good second to Undersupervision in the Grimthorpe Chase at Doncaster last month.

He is 1lb off with the winner but at the comparative odds I am prepared to take the chance that Mister Malarky can be brough back to the level that saw him rated 155 not that long ago. If so, he will go close despite top weight.

Bolted up at odds-on in a weak race last time out and is clearly getting the hang of things over hurdles.

He looks ready for handicaps and has been given a real chance by the assessor to judge by the way his previous run has worked out.

Horses that finished well behind him at Exeter have come out and won races on their next start and I could easily have rated him 7lb higher for that run.

There is a lot of pace in this race and hopefully he will not get into a protracted battle up front, but even so his light weight should prove significant and he can follow up.

Last season’s highest rated 2yo runs in the Craven Stakes this afternoon and there are some cracking races for bets later in the season but I will be hosting the Club day at Cheltenham so have focussed my tips on a really good jumping card.