Noble Alan hopes to succeed at The Ladbroke

Nicky Richards is keeping his fingers crossed the rain stays away from Ascot this week to allow Noble Alan to take his chance in The Ladbroke on Saturday.

The well-regarded five-year-old has won two of his four starts over obstacles and chased home Font in a competitive handicap at Cheltenham last time.

Richards is keen to let his charge line up in Saturday’s valuable contest in Berkshire but admits any cut in the ground would put the run in doubt.

“It depends on whether it stays dry for the rest of the week because he could do with the ground drying out a little bit,” said Richards.

“He definitely wants a bit of decent ground but I’ve had him ready for a couple of races now and you can’t go on forever like that, so we will see.

“If he doesn’t run I may have to have a word with the owner and see if we should give him a break until the spring.

“He ran a grand race to finish second at Cheltenham last time and I do think he is a horse with a lot of promise.”

Philip Hobbs admits it is a step into the unknown with ante-post gamble Belcantista.

The JP McManus-owned six-year-old has been the subject of a major market move this week.

Having been as big as 25-1 on Monday morning, he is now a best-priced 8-1 for the competitive event.

He scored by six lengths on his first start for Hobbs at Exeter last month and the Minehead trainer is looking forward to seeing how he fares at the weekend.

“He has good Flat form in France, he has raced round Auteuil and obviously he is handicapped on what he has done over there,” said Hobbs.

“He won easily at Exeter but the form is difficult to measure as the second horse had good bumper form but it is hard to know how good he is over hurdles.

“He could be well handicapped but I wouldn’t say he definitely is. Off a mark of 127 he could struggle to win another novice with a penalty so I thought we might as well make use of it in case it’s lenient.

“A lot of novices probably wouldn’t cope with the more experienced handicappers but he is a very experienced horse.”

Hobbs could also be represented by Prince Taime, who ran a creditable third in a Listed event at Newbury last time.

“He ran very well indeed at Newbury and Richard (Johnson) thought a race like The Ladbroke would be ideal due to the fact that he can be very keen,” Hobbs told At The Races.

“Obviously it would be a big ask on Saturday on what would be only his fourth run over hurdles but we will see nearer the time.”

Hugh Collingridge is hoping to secure the services of a conditional jockey for his charge Group Captain.

“He’s very well and we shall put a 5lb claimer on. We’re not quite sure yet who it will be, we’re in negotiations.” said Collingridge.

“He’s a likely runner and we just hope it stays dry and the course dries out a bit. They had a lot of rain on Saturday.

“He had three runs on the Flat and ran okay in the November Handicap as he got knocked around a lot. And there was nothing with his Ascot hurdles run off 11st 12lb. He’s jumping really well.”

Irish trainer Arthur Moore will wait until Thursday before deciding whether or not to send over Sole Bonne Femme.

“I really don’t know at this stage and I wont know until Thursday,” said the Naas-based handler.

Sole Bonne Femme made all the running when successful at Down Royal in early November but disappointed over fences three weeks later at Navan.

“He made a mistake there but he probably didn’t handle the heavy ground,” added Moore.

“We thought we’d give him an entry for this race and we’ll see on Thursday what we are going to do.”