'He's a fine horse who will make a nice chaser - and we hope he could end up at Cheltenham'

Neil Mulholland rolled back the years last term, which was his most successful season for nearly a decade. His final total of 74 winners and strike-rate of 17 per cent were both the best he has recorded since 2016-17.

Those figures were achieved without an obvious star in the yard – no horse ran to a Racing Post Rating of higher than 138 – as Mulholland coaxed continual improvement out of a large number of the string at his Wiltshire base, winning with 45 different horses, 22 of whom landed two or more races.

Plenty of those look ready to step up to the next level this season, when the team looks to have a particularly strong hand in novice chases, and there are also several interesting new recruits to look out for in bumpers or novice hurdles.