This time might be the right time for Thistle to be a Christmas cracker

It is a nice problem to have, as they say. It's also one of those dilemmas that is easily accessible to the wider racing population – you do not need to know much about the structure of the levy or the nuances of the duties of a raceday steward in order to be able to proffer an opinion on whether Thistlecrack should run in the King George VI Chase.

There are, as usual, two schools of thought that we might be able to label 'Old School' and 'Secondary Modern'. The old-school, traditional viewpoint is there is a perfectly good novice contest open to Thistlecrack at Kempton over Christmas and he should continue his education over fences in that. The other perspective is that here is a top-class horse in top order who is entitled to take his chance in a better race over the same course and distance – and so he should.

The eight-year-old's display at Newbury last weekend had everyone purring, a brilliant novice barely extended and still within stretching distance of the course record. The choice now lies squarely between the King George and the Feltham; soon after the Newbury race the pollsters had the King George ahead, but after settling-down Sunday the Feltham seemed to be edging ahead on votes.