Paul Nicholls: the inside track on my Saturday runners

Treasure Planet is a nice three-year-old. He had two runs on the flat, finishing second on his last start. He's done well, he's done lots and lots of jumping, but he's got to learn on the track.

We like him. I think James Owens' Ammes looks quite smart and will be tough to beat. We'll learn an awful lot more about Treasure Planet after this run, but he's ready to go.

Knappers Hill won this race in 2022, and then two years ago at this meeting, he just ran away, won on his debut over fences before going on to Wincanton where he won the Rising Stars Novices’ Chase. Sadly, he came back from that race with a touch of a leg problem, so we've given him lots of time. 

He did plenty of work in the spring, but we didn't have him quite ready to run. He had a nice summer, and he's been in since 1 July. Going back over hurdles today, he's got a quite a high rating. He was 152, he's now dropped to 146. He'll need a run. He needs some experience. 

After Saturday's race, we'll try and run him in a graduation chase for horses that have won no more than two chases, which fits in with his programme. He will possibly go to Haydock on Betfair Chase Day for the Graduation Chase there. If he runs a tidy race on Saturday, we'll be delighted.

Clotilda has got a nice weight. I was very keen to run her in the two-mile novice handicap chase but, with her being a forward filly, she was five pounds out of the weight, so I didn't want to run her in that. I've elected to run her in this off 117, a competitive race. She did run very tidily on her last appearance for us at Cheltenham in a mares' handicap hurdle. 

She looks as big as a bull this year. She'll just improve for the run. She has been in the country for a year now from France and could have improved enormously, we don't know. So, we're hopeful of a good run, but she will definitely be going chasing after this.

This is a little bit more competitive than Paddy De Pole’s last race at Sedgefield last month, but the horse he beat that day won at Newton Abbott since.

It is not easy to find plenty of races for Paddy De Pole. He's run one on the track before. Freddie takes a handy seven off. He's got a chance. He'd have to improve a little bit on what he's done. As I said, it's a more competitive race that his last one, but he'll run a nice race.