Thyme proves fruitful on look back at potential Cheltenham Festival stars

With not much racing on turf for the past week, I had plenty of time on my hands and spent a good part of it re-watching all the racing at Kempton and Leopardstown over Christmas.

It's amazing how much you can learn or have missed when you go back over the best races with a fine toothcomb and there were plenty of horses who jumped out at me as having the potential to make a big impact at the spring festivals.

Thyme Hill was the one who really surprised me and might have been the one I got most wrong because I had pigeon-holed him as a horse who has seen better days and will never be as good over fences as he was over hurdles.