Fringill Dike gets Jedd O'Keeffe excited about his jumps squad

Friday: Hexham

Jedd O'Keeffe does not have a big team of jumpers but is looking forward to an exciting winter with his select squad which includes Fringill Dike, who justified 2-7 favouritism in the 2m novice hurdle.

The five-year-old was carrying a double penalty after a pair of course-and-distance victories by a combined total of 16 lengths and he made all in comfortable fashion to score by the same margin under Sean Quinlan.

"We're really happy," said O'Keeffe. "It's hard to gauge the strength of the form of those behind him but he did it really well – I can't pretend we're not excited.

"It's going to be inevitable that he'll have to try something stronger. I haven't made a plan yet as I wanted to see how he would cope with his double penalty and today's conditions.

"We've got options and we'll see what the handicapper does with him. The jockey reported a stronger horse, despite him not being at peak fitness, which is very encouraging – we've got very high hopes for him."

O'Keeffe has sent out six winners in each of the last two jumps seasons and is excited by his current squad.

"We don't have a big team of jumpers but we have a nice team," he added. "We're looking forward to it – we have a couple of novice chasers who are fairly exciting."

Winning start

The feature 2m4f handicap hurdle went the way of the Mark Walford-trained Willaston, who was having just his second start for new connections.

Results, replays and analysis

Sign up to receive On The Nose, our essential daily newsletter, from the Racing Post. Your unmissable morning feed, direct to your email inbox every morning.