Nico de Boinville: “Buzz has stronger claims than most, if not all”

Newbury

1.50pm

Mengli Khan

He has joined us from Gordon Elliott and he certainly went out with a bang for him when winning by a wide margin at Ballinrobe in September. He faces no easy talk trying to win this off a mark of 150 and under 11st 12lb, but he deserves that rating I guess, and trip and ground are not obvious negatives for him, though maybe he would like the going a little better looking at his overall record. He has settled in well here. Unibet's 15 To Go offer will be LIVE on this race! Check it out here.

15:35pm

Buzz

He obviously shaped very well when third in what turned out to be a very hot Welsh Champion Hurdle on his return, and he did more than his bit for the form when sauntering home here last time. He clearly won very easily there. However, there is no doubting this a much deeper handicap, he has gone up 11lb, and this ground promises to be very testing indeed. Even though he has won on soft a few times, the way he travels through his races has me wondering whether he will be even better on decent ground. But I don’t want to downplay his chances here too much, as he has a very progressive profile and stronger claims than most, if not all. He was very good last time. Unibet's 15 To Go offer will be LIVE on this race! Check it out here.