Martin Dixon's Saturday tips: "I rate him a strong bet"

A progressive novice chaser last season, The Doyen Chief has come back with a couple of efforts this term that suggest to me he's far from handicapped out of things from a mark in the high 130s.

On his comeback at Bangor, he was the only horse to push the rapidly-improving Deep Cave (winner again since), pulling well clear of the rest. Then from slightly out of the handicap at Cheltenham last time, he shaped really well in a strong race, travelling and jumping with loads of zest, but ultimately finding the longer trip and uphill finish too much. 

He's a course and distance winner already and will definitely benefit from this drop back in distance. He's generally 11-4 at the time of writing (10-3 in places) and I rate him a strong bet at above 2-1. 

Although Kalif Du Berlais looks the one to beat in this Grade Two contest, I think the market looks a little too one-sided and odds of 4-1 about the veteran Edwardstone warrants a small bet in my opinion.

Ok, Alan King's stable stalwart isn't the force of old, but his second to the thriving Djelo in the Peterborough Chase last time was still a smart effort, on par with his BHA rating of 152, and he's in receipt of weight all round here that brings him right into the mix.

Maybe around Kempton Kalif Du Berlais will be effective ove this intermediate trip, but he patently failed to stay this far at Sandown last season, so there remains an element of doubt on that score and I'm hoping Edwardstone can track and pounce on the favourite late.

On his last start in a British handicap hurdle, Beat The Bat ran a blinder to finish fourth in the Coral Cup at the Cheltenham Festival and I'm sure there's a big handicap like this in him sooner or later.

He didn't take to chasing last month, so it looks the right call to revert to the smaller obstacles and I've always felt like a strongly-race over an intermediate distance provides him with his optimum test, yet he's had very little racing through his career under these sort of conditions.

He's best away from testing ground, so everything looks set up for him and Harry Fry's stable form over the Christmas period was also very positive. He's a general price of 8-1 at the time of writing.