Coral’s eyecatchers from Saturday’s Cheltenham trial days

Following a big weekend of racing with festival clues aplenty, Coral’s Lewis Knowles picks out a few eyecatchers from Cheltenham Trials Day on Saturday.

Excelero – 4^th – Triumph Trial

Anybody with a working pair of eyes could tell you that if a superstar is going to come out of Saturday’s Triumph Trial at Cheltenham, it will surely be Sir Gino. A scintillating display from one of Nicky Henderson’s most exciting young prospects propelled him to the head of the betting for the big juvenile race at the festival, and for many people, he’ll now be one of the bankers of the week.

Rather than prematurely crown Sir Gino as the next big thing though, it’s much more fun to attempt to find a dark horse for the future in behind, and while he still clearly looked a work in progress, Excelero is a horse that Jane Williams can very much look forward to the future with.

This four-year-old son of Castle Du Berlais did a lot wrong on Saturday, yet despite the obvious signs of inexperience throughout, the eye-catching progress he made before two out suggested this is a horse with plenty of raw ability. He eventually kept on at one pace to finish fourth, but the 11-length gap to the winner was pretty much what he gave away at the start, and this experience almost certainly won’t be lost on Excelero.

It will be fascinating to see what Jane Williams does with him going forward, but should they get a handicap mark and decide to have a go, then it wouldn’t be ridiculous to suggest he could get involved off a strong pace in something like the Boodles Handicap at the festival.

Ahoy Senor – 4^th – Cotswold Chase

‘‘The ability is there if he’d just apply himself’’ is the sort of thing my parents will have been sick of hearing at many a school parents evening, but Ahoy Senor still has time to realise his full potential and become a straight-A student if he’d just put it all together.