Under The Radar: five to follow from Toby Lawes

Based in the picturesque Surrey countryside, Nicky Henderson's former assistant Toby Lawes is enjoying a season of firsts.

In December, he saddled Klimt Madrik to take second in the Challow Hurdle behind No Drama This End, his first ever runner in a Grade One contest. That horse could well be his first runner at the Cheltenham Festival next month, too. Then, earlier this week, he landed his first jumps double on the same card when Dulhallow Tommy and La Higuera won by a combined 23 lengths at Southwell.

From a relatively small string of horses, he also trained Surrey Lord to win at Kempton on Boxing Day, a track at which he also saddled St Pancras to finish second in the Adonis Juvenile Hurdle last season, who had previously won the Scottish Triumph.

The Henfold handler has punched well above his weight for some time and is operating at a 60 per cent strike rate over the past fortnight. Furthermore, he has already matched last season's tally of winners, and the future looks bright too, with plenty of exciting young horses at the yard still to make their debut.

With plenty to look forward to as we approach the business end of the National Hunt season, below are five horses from the yard to keep a close eye on over the coming months.

He’s really developed as a horse, he is absolutely enormous, probably about 17.2hh. He was a big raw beast, but he has a huge amount of ability, and the hurdles sometimes look a bit small for him!

We were delighted with his first run, he made a bit of novicey error at the second last and that cost us a few lengths, but he still finished strongly which gave us plenty of hope.

Then going to Newbury, it was going to be a strong race, but we thought he’d come on nicely from his first run of the season, and he showed loads of class and a great attitude to win.

It was then a bit of a no brainer to go back to that track for the Challow. We were quite keen just to ride him in a patient manner and have one good crack in the home straight, essentially just to try and develop him into a nice horse.

They went such a steady gallop and we were probably worst positioned for that, but I was happy we chose to ride him in that way because I think for his sake it was beneficial. 

No Drama This End is a very smart horse and considering from the position we came from, I thought we were able to at least ask him a question and I would be happy to take him on again.

If that race had focused a bit more on stamina, I think we could have finished a bit closer and there should be more to come. 

We were hoping to try out Cheltenham Trials Day or Leopardstown, but his trach-wash wasn’t 100 per cent, so we had to skip those two options. It would have been a great test to run him at Cheltenham at the end of January on a different track and test his balance and tactical speed as well.

I'm now going to try and run him next weekend all being well and we have three options. We could go to Haydock for the three-mile Grade Two [Prestige Novices' Hurdle] which would answer a couple of questions as whether we should go up in trip for the Albert Bartlett or run over the shorter trip in the Turners Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.

We also have a decent novices’ hurdle at Ascot on the same day which is 2m3f, that should be fine as long as it's soft enough, and if either of those don’t quite tick the box, there is another novices’ hurdle back at Newbury a few days later.

He hasn’t missed a beat, but he just had a few specs of mucus in the trach-wash and being a big, young, progressive horse, [running at Cheltenham or Leopardstown] was not something we wanted to chance. He is now very ready to go.

He is a great character. He took a long time to grow up and he's always thought a huge amount of himself! He’s progressed really nicely and the penny has just really dropped with him this year.

He ran well in bumpers and novice hurdles last year, but I think he's grown up to an extent that he's able to really focus his energy in the right direction.

He won at Kempton on Boxing Day and was then fourth at Ascot the other day, but the ground was far too soft for him and he was wheel-spinning on it, so I certainly wasn't perturbed by that effort.

I think there's still scope in his mark and we’ve actually been quite busy with him this year, but I'd like to think he can run a couple of more times in the spring, ability-wise there is plenty left in the tank on better ground.

He will be a really really nice chaser next year. Surrey Racing are a great team of owners and they have plenty of fun.

He’s only been with us for about a month and he's a nice horse that we got after he won his maiden hurdle at Limerick in late December. He’s got a really interesting pedigree and I liked the way he won. 

We bought him with half a plan to try and get him into the EBF final [Sandown, March 7] and so he's running on Friday in a qualifier at Bangor over two miles. The trip is possibly on the sharp side for him, but he seems to handle the soft ground well.

We haven’t had much time to get to know him, but he's done a couple of really nice pieces of work and I think he will be a really fun horse for Andrew and Sarah Wates.

He will be a proper stayer in time and if he can run nicely there on Friday you’d like to think there will be improvement to come stepping up in trip over two and a half miles in the EBF final if we can get there.

He ran six times on the Flat in France for Francis-Henri Graffard and has ran twice over hurdles here, most recently finishing a close second at Ludlow on Wednesday. I’m really excited by what he can do.

I think he represented very good value at the sale [bought for €40,000 at Arqana from the Aga Khan Stud draft] and he stays very well, and he handles cut in the ground which is fantastic.

He wasn't fully fit when he ran at Ascot but he needed to have a run and I was pleased with his run this week. It probably wasn’t the right track for him, it's a sharper test and he was tapped for toe by a ten-furlong Flat horse and then nearly outstayed him at the end. A more galloping track should suit.

I haven't fully decided on what the plan is for him in the spring, but one of the reasons for bringing him out so soon after Ascot was that we’d like to get another run before the cut-off date and could consider the Fred Winter at Cheltenham.

If not, he could be a contender for the novices’ championship final on Sandown on the final day of the season. He's owned by a couple of lads my age who are barristers in London and they're really keen, and they've got fully stuck in with it all which has been great fun.

An 85-rated Flat performer, he has had two starts over hurdles, finishing second both times.

We bought him from Ralph Beckett [for 75,000gns] and he is a thorough stayer. He won a bumper for Ralph back in the day before he went back on the Flat.

He’s got a nice pedigree by Time Test and they seem to train on nicely. We got him out fairly swiftly at Hereford after we bought him, but the ground was on the loose side for him and he may have needed that run as well.

Back on better ground at Kempton, he looked much more natural. We were beaten soundly by a nice horse, but there were some nice horses behind too. He’s probably not a chaser, but he’s very clever with his hurdling and he’s tough with a great attitude.

We will step him up in trip in the spring, but might have another run before we do that. If we’re happy with how well he settles, he could even go up to three miles at some stage. We’re just waiting for the ground to dry up and we could have some fun on the Flat with him too.