Novices’ chase a Cotswold reminder

THE week after Cheltenham provides sufficient refuge for the needy and the greedy, with next Saturday seeing the start of the turf Flat season.

But Easter Sunday racing at Fairyhouse with the Powers Gold Cup Novices’ Chase will offer a timely reminder of the top-drawer action we witnessed last week in the Cotswolds.

The William Hill Lincoln is probably one of the toughest codes to crack in the Flat calendar, such are its handicapping pitfalls and hugely competitive demeanour. That said, it rarely disappoints as a visual spectacle and is welcomed back to Doncaster with open arms and open wallets.

Won by the William Haggas -trained Very Wise 12 months ago at Newcastle, the one-mile Lincoln is currently headed in the ante-post lists by the smart Zaahid from the Barry Hills camp.

Supplementing the £125,000 showpiece is the Spring Mile, the Listed Cammidge Trophy and the opening Brocklesby Conditions Stakes.

All three events are invariably useful yardsticks in setting decent early-season form and the Spring Mile is worth nearly £20,000 to winning connections.

There is also decent fare on the sand at Kempton, with the annual renewal of the intercasino.co.uk Dragonfly Stakes — a mile-and-half Listed event for improving four-year-olds and upwards.

This is a period of flux, however, and a prolonged changing of the guard from the National Hunt game to the Flat sees good action at Carlisle and Haydock on Saturday.

The action in Merseyside is particularly relevant, with the Grand National around the corner, and is spearheaded by the Red Square Vodka “Fixed Brush” Novices’ Hurdle Final Bonus Race.

Fixtures (Flat in italics):

Tomorrow: Limerick, Navan, Carlisle, Fontwell.

Monday (St Patrick’s Day): Down Royal, Wexford, Lingfield, Taunton, Wolverhampton

Tuesday: Naas, Exeter, Kempton, Warwick

Wednesday: Dundalk (evening), Chepstow, Kempton (evening), Lingfield, Market Rasen

Thursday: Clonmel, Ludlow, Southwell, Wincanton

Friday (Good Friday): No racing.

Saturday: Cork, Fairyhouse, Carlisle (Ch4), Doncaster (Ch4), Haydock (Ch4), Kempton, Newton Abbot, Wolverhampton (evening)

Sunday (Easter Sunday): Cork, Fairyhouse, Musselburgh, Plumpton, Towcester.