Des Obeaux faces stiff task to emulate Smad Place in Ladbrokes Trophy

We're going to have another crack at winning the Ladbrokes Trophy with Label Des Obeaux at Newbury on Saturday.

It was one of my greatest days when Smad Place landed what was then the Hennessy a couple of years ago – it doesn't come much better than winning the biggest race of the year at your local track.

Label Des Obeaux has been aimed at the race all season, he should have conditions to suit and ran creditably behind Might Bite at Sandown last time.

My fear is that he has too much weight. Smad Place was handily treated, whereas Label Des Obeaux doesn’t look handicapped to win a race like this.

We have to try to find some improvement in him, so we schooled him in cheekpieces the other day. They seemed to sharpen him up and he’ll probably wear those on Saturday.

Coeur De Lion is also in the grip of the handicapper – I reckon he’s probably still 10lb too high at the moment – but I hope he’ll find some improvement for stepping up in trip in the 2m4f handicap hurdle.

I was going to run him at Haydock last weekend but I felt the ground would be too heavy for him there, so we waited for this.

Dino Velvet is in the same race but he’s also in the Gerry Feilden Hurdle over 2m and we’ll have to decide which is the better option. He ran a good race first time out at Chepstow and, though he had a slight setback after that, he seems fine now.

It would be great to get Cosmeapolitan going again over hurdles in the Gerry Feilden. He won first time out at Newbury last December but then missed the rest of the season with a stress fracture.

He’s run all right on the Flat since then and we’ll have a good look at this race, but there’s a chance he may wait until Huntingdon in a couple of weeks.

Fidux is also a possible and he was travelling well when he unseated at the last at Sandown.

Elsewhere, I’m hopeful for Stylish Moment in the bumper at Bangor. He’s come forward from his debut third there last month.

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