Paul Nicholls column: my Saturday team plus thoughts on recent runners

Stick To The Board ran nicely and jumped well. He was keen and a bit fresh. He missed the last, but he will improve enormously for that run. It's only early October; when horses run like that on their debut, you're delighted with them. Bravemansgame got beat on his hurdles debut at the same meeting and then went on to win his next three races.

So yes, I was thrilled with him. He will have learned a lot from that, and the run won't be lost on him. In terms of his next run, it all depends on what rain we get, but I wouldn't want to run him for at least three weeks. I want to get him sharper and fitter.

Treasure Planet has improved a little bit, and it was good to see him win a nice race. But he's a very fit-looking horse, always comes back from the summer off looking like that, so he was ready for the day. I wouldn't say there's huge improvement to come from him, so we'll just try to find another race like that for him, but I was delighted with the win.

We learned a lot about Too Many Acres. That was his first day on a racecourse, and he was just caught a little flat-footed in a race where they went no gallop at all. It was probably a tidy little bumper, and he's on a learning curve, so we'll give him a month or so and we'll find another race for him where he should improve tonnes.

Pourquoi Pas Papa will improve for his chase debut at Ffos Las. For a four-year-old to jump round and finish second on his first run of the season, it was good. It's a long season, as I always say. I think he'll be better on slightly better ground, as we were all a little surprised how soft it was the other day.

Sinnatra's obviously a high-class horse and loves that ground, and Pourquoi Pas Papa wouldn't be in the same league as him at this stage, but he'll win lots of races. You'll find that a lot of my horses will improve for their debut runs or first runs of the season.

Tutti Quanti (pictured above) jumped well, but he ran too free in a race that had a fast time. It was around 10 seconds faster than the handicap over the same distance, which is not surprising, really, given the speed he went.

He was only beaten a length and a half by a horse who was a Challow Hurdle winner (Captain Teague) on testing ground and who was very fit-looking in the paddock and had the right conditions for him. I said to Sam Twiston-Davies before the race that Captain Teague would be no pushover because he looked fit and would get the trip well.

Tutti Quanti probably just got outstayed on the ground the way the race panned out. He had a big lead and just got a little bit tired. So, for a first run over fences, I was thrilled with it, as he'll build massively on that run. Look at last season: he was sixth in the Welsh Champion Hurdle and then improved lots, so for a novice, any novice really, to jump round and finish second, they're only going to improve tonnes.

I think if he hadn't been so enthusiastic and free, then he would probably have won, so what trip we run him over next much depends on the ground. I don't think he wants two and a half miles on very testing ground, so I think we could drop him back to two miles on soft ground, or, if it's better ground, then two and a half miles is fine.

I haven't thought about where we might go next. He had a hard enough race, so we're not going to rush him. He's not the easiest horse to place, as he has to go left-handed because he jumps a little bit left. There's a two-mile beginners' chase at Warwick next month, and there's a race at Cheltenham at the November Meeting, so we'll think about them, but he won't run for at least three weeks.

He loves good ground; he doesn't want it too soft. He obviously gets further than this trip, but it's a good starting point for his season.

I've done well in this race with some really smart horses like Frodon, Bravemansgame, Pic d'Orhy, among others, who have made this a stepping stone for the season, so it's a nice place to start for Quebecois.

He's done a lot of work and looks well, but again, he will improve for the run. It's not all about winning on Saturday. He'll have entries for all the good races down the line, the good novice chases. I'd say he's fit enough to run very well.

Dan Skelton's got one in the race that's obviously very fit and won the other day, but I'd like to think we're slightly better than him (Country Mile) on all known form, but who knows?

I hope he'll be better than his mark of 142, but he's quite versatile in that he can run in novice chases as well as handicaps. He'll definitely have an entry in the Paddy Power Gold Cup, so we'll see what that race looks like, but I think he'll keep improving.

We quite like him. He's done everything right at home, but you don't know what you've got until you run them. Lorcan Williams has ridden him on a couple of away days, so he takes the ride on Saturday. 

He goes nicely at home, so we don't think he'll be far away.