Others to consider

The core list of seven required significant condensing and Champion Bumper third

James’s Gate almost made the cut. While he flopped at Punchestown next time, that was a bizarre affair and he should win races over hurdles this season.

Authorised Speed fared best of the home team at Cheltenham for Gary Moore and could progress over hurdles, while Henri The Second was Paul Nicholls’ top bumper performer last season. Forgive his disappointing effort at Aintree last time as he lost a shoe and cut himself.

The Fergal O’Brien-trained

Hullnback is another name to note from that Grade 2. He still has lots to learn but is talented and ran a cracker in second.

Nicky Henderson’s joint toprated on RPRs in bumpers in 2021-22 was undefeated fouryear-old filly Luccia ,who slammed a decent field by 17 lengths on soft ground at Sandown when last seen.

The novice status of Gaelic Warrior, second in the

Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival on his stable debut for Willie Mullins after arriving from France, is preserved for this season and he could also reach a high level.

Others to note from the strong Mullins camp are Punchestown winner Lisnagar Fortune, a half-brother to Stayers’ Hurdle winner Lisnagar Oscar, and Ashroe Diamond.

The last-named five-year-old hacked up by six lengths in the

Aintree Grade 2 mares’ bumper and beat another useful type in the Gavin Cromwell-trained Law Ella, who was running for only the second time.

VERDICT

Point-to-point graduates and Flat recruits will have an impact on this division and it will be interesting to see which unknown quantities from those spheres enter the reckoning for the major novice prizes.

However, that is all too ambiguous and one ‘known’ is that stacks of winners emerge from the Champion Bumper every year.

Sir Gerhard and Three Stripe Life finished first and fourth in the 2021 running and between them managed a Grade 1 success at the Dublin Racing

Festival, the Cheltenham Festival and the Aintree festival over trips ranging from two miles to 2m5f.

The three-mile novice hurdle division is the trickiest to predict. Leading bumper horses tend to commence hurdling over sharper trips, with a step up to three miles coming only once a trainer’s hand is forced due to a lack of toe over shorter.

That is not to crab the stayers. After multiple defeats in lesser company over two and a half miles, Sefton Novices’ Hurdle winner Gelino Bello realised his true potential only when he was moved up to three miles in the spring and looked brilliant at Aintree. Redemption Day progress for

It will be fascinating to see the top yards this season but it how the likes of Facile Vega, would also be a welcome sign American Mike and if one of the lesser-known

stables could rub shoulders with the big boys. Lookaway fits that bill perfectly for Neil King.