Never mind presents, picking Long Walk Hurdle winner is your trickiest task

IN A NUTSHELL

There was you thinking picking a present for your other half would be your most arduous task of the weekend. Little did you know there was a JLT Hurdle winner to choose too – and seldom has the staying hurdle shelf looked so ripe for filling.

The favourite for the race registered as the Long Walk is a horse who has never tried three miles before. Two miles and five and a half furlongs is the furthest Call Me Lord has gone and that was on a lively surface at Sandown last spring. He is not even the highest-rated runner in the line-up.

That accolade goes to last year’s winner Sam Spinner, but he was stuffed when departing the Long Distance Hurdle at Newbury last month at the second-last having stalled into every second hurdle. That contest went to Unowhatimeanharry, who also runs here. He turns 11 next week and was 11 lengths behind Sam Spinner on this day 12 months ago.

Paisley Park is the young pretender but is he ready to win a Grade 1? He’s had only seven career runs and won a handicap in the final stride at Haydock on his most recent start off a mark of 147.

Agrapart has never won right-handed, Soul Emotion could be anything but we’ve seen him only twice in Britain so who knows how good he is, while Top Notch is top notch on his day but hasn’t appeared for 238 days. Confused? Me too.

The Ascot card

The Betfair Exchange Trophy winner isn’t any easier to find with 21 runners and bookmakers offering 13-2 about the favourite, and the Silver Cup that precedes it is jam-packed full of classy chasers on their day but figuring out whose day it is will be the hard part.

Picking out perfume has never seemed so straightforward.

Unowhatimeanharry gallops away from the final flight to win the 2016 Long WalkCredit: Mark Cranham

Watch out, there’s a Tornado arriving

You may be curious to know more about Emmet Mullins, given that he is the trainer of leading Betfair Exchange Trophy fancy Tornado Watch. He is the son of George, the transport tycoon who is responsible for getting his brother Willie’s string to the racetrack.

Emmet is a cousin of jockeys Patrick, Danny and David, who will be on board Tornado Watch. He is also a Cheltenham Festival-winning jockey himself courtesy of Sir Des Champs, who stormed home to land the Martin Pipe in 2011, but most importantly of all he is a talented trainer who is showing a healthy level-stakes profit with his runners in his relatively short career.

Emmet Mullins: sent out a double at Down Royal as spectators were welcomed back to the track

Emmet Mullins: has long-term Cheltenham plans forCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

If you had a tenner on each of his jumps runners in Ireland since he started training you would be €300.50 better off now, thanks to 13 winners from just 60 runners – a 22 per cent success rate.

He paid a successful visit to Fakenham last month with Yeats Baby, supported from a double-figure price into 8-11 before taking a 2m7f handicap hurdle.

What he has achieved with Tornado Watch is quite remarkable too. The son of Selkirk arrived in his stable rated 101 over hurdles earlier this year but wins at Tramore and Kilbeggan – he won a Flat maiden at Tramore in August too – have seen his mark over hurdles soar to 133 in Britain for Saturday's Ascot mission.

Perhaps his best run of all was in defeat when second to Jury Duty in the American Grand National at Far Hills.

Tornado Watch is the only Irish representative in the £150,000 handicap hurdle, despite the fact Irish runners have won two of the last seven runnings via Cause Of Causes in 2012 and Bayan in 2014.

Recurring theme in JLT Hurdle

Did you know since the turn of the millennium there have been only 11 different winners of the JLT Hurdle in 18 years?

That's because Baracouda won it four times (2000, 2001, 2003, 2004) and Big Buck’s (2009, 2010, 2011) and Reve De Sivola (2012, 2013, 2014) both three times.

It is a race renowned for repeat winners and Unowhatimeanharry (2016) and Sam Spinner (2017) have already done the business, so the statistics are in their favour.

A generous gift from the Flat

It is seldom you see a horse rated 117 on the Flat appear three days before Christmas but John Gosden has decided to let wide-margin Cambridgeshire winner Wissahickon out to play at Lingfield in the Listed Betway Quebec Stakes (2.15). It looks a shrewd piece of placing.

Wissahickon was a Group performer masquerading as a handicapper in that 33-runner Newmarket contest and his mark has soared 10lb to 117, which means he is officially rated 8lb superior to anything else in the seven-runner field.

He's three from four on the all-weather, won his sole start around Lingfield by eight lengths and is nicely drawn in stall three. What could possibly go wrong?

Frankie Dettori performs a flying dismount after Wissahickon's victory in the CambridgeshireCredit: Mark Cranham

Is Queenohearts your trump card?

The Listed Smarkets Betting Exchange Mares' Novices' Hurdle (1.00) is one of the Haydock highlights on Tommy Whittle day and Queenohearts could prove to be the trump card.

She was a smart bumper performer, her finest moment arriving in a Listed mares' event at Sandown in March, but her hurdling debut at Chepstow suggests better is to come this season.

The form of her second to Deise Aba in that 2m3½f maiden hurdle has worked out incredibly well. She pulled ten lengths clear of Know The Score, who won next time by eight lengths at Hexham. Newtide (fourth) won next time at Haydock by four lengths and Diger Daudaie (fifth) was also successful on his next outing at Newcastle.

Watch Queenohearts' run at Chepstow

Now that's what you call rock-solid form.

Former Triumph contenders clash at Lingfield

The Triumph Hurdle does not usually link too many runners in handicaps on the all-weather at Lingfield, but that is the case on Saturday when Redicean and Zubayr are among the eight runners in a Betway-backed contest over a mile and a half (2.50).

The Alan King-trained Redicean finished sixth in this year’s juvenile hurdling showpiece at the Cheltenham Festival, while Zubayr, who runs for Ian Williams at Lingfield having been moved from Paul Nicholls’ yard, finished 13th in the 2016 Triumph.

The pair also have in common the fact they were last-time-out winners over Saturday’s distance on the all-weather, though Redicean’s success at Wolverhampton was earlier this month, while Zubayr’s came at Kempton in May last year.

King said: "Redicean won well enough on his return to the Flat at Wolverhampton to give him every chance off a mark just 4lb higher."

Evening action at the Lesters

No, you have not blinked and missed it. There is no evening racing on Saturday for the first time this year.

It is still a big night for jockeys, however, as it is their annual awards ceremony known as the Lesters at the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge in London.

Voting for seven of the nine awards is by ballot among members of the Professional Jockeys Association.

Flat Ride of the Year has been chosen by Racing Post readers, while the Jump Ride of the Year, sponsored by At The Races, has been decided by votes on the TV channel's website.

Racing Post columnist Sam Twiston-Davies is among the four nominations for Jump Ride of the Year for his brilliant performance on Politologue at the Grand National meeting in April.