Well-treated Blazer could be tailor-made for Newbury's Betfair Hurdle

Connections of heavily-backed favourite Blazer are taking nothing for granted as the recent Leopardstown scorer bids to follow-up in today’s Betfair Hurdle at Newbury.

The Willie Mullins-trained French recruit was bought as a prospective chaser at the start of the season, but following a short-priced defeat at Punchestown and a fairly abysmal showing at Leopardstown over Christmas, there has been a change of approach since the turn of the year.

Switched back to the smaller obstacles on his return to Foxrock last weekend, the five-year-old carried the colours of leading owner JP McManus to an emphatic success and with Blazer well-treated at the weights, connections have been tempted into running him just seven days later in this lucrative event.