Dave Nevison's Tuesday Racing Tips: Natty Night looks all right

This one is obviously quite an impressive looker as his sale price jumped from £30k to £160k in less than 12 months on the back of one start in a Point, so someone has already had a touch on this six-year-old! He has been slow to return any of that massive investment up to now, but dropped into a handicap hurdle for the first time hopefully gives him a real chance to start paying his connections back.

The key looks to be that he is back up in trip as his only real form, albeit modest, came over this distance when third behind two useful types (both now rated in the mid-130s) at Worcester in October. A literal reading of that form would now make his opening mark of 102 look very generous but two subsequent lesser runs have clouded things for the handicapper.

Given that his quite illustrious relatives are very strong stayers it looks highly likely that he will show up better over this trip and as long as he is fit after a couple of months' absence it is difficult to see him not running well in this modest affair. He could be an absolute blot.

He looks a pretty straightforward type and has run well on both his runs over hurdles so far. He benefited from his debut experience last time at Taunton, winning well after making the running. He was a pretty useful front running handicapper on the Flat over middle distances and certainly handled soft ground.

He took a while to acclimatise for his new yard, disappointing on the Flat last year, but Venetia Williams certainly seems to have got him on song now and a mark of 110 looks a reasonable starting point for handicaps.

Robert Stephens’ small string have gone really well in January, with a couple of winners, so even though this horse went off at a massive price when runner-up last time I am inclined to take the form he showed over course and distance from miles out of the handicap at face value.

The winner of the race could potentially be useful, so given that a mistake two out probably cost him second place, Son Of Oz could look thrown in here off a 7lb lower mark. That was the first form he had ever shown, but there are enough positive factors around him for me to give him a chance to show it was no fluke.