The two-and-a-half-mile Stable Plate is another keen betting heat, one that this year is worth £120,000 and features some 21 runners.

This’ll be another tough finish for those good enough to see it out, with trip being a major consideration among all the criteria we looked at.

We’ve managed to whittle away at this line-up, removing the ones we reckon could struggle on the day leaving us with this six against the field.

Main Contenders

Crebilly

Jonjo O’Neill Sr and Jr partner up with this well-fancied contender, one owned by JP McManus.

Despite coming here twice this season and leaving with nothing, we’d argue that the seven-year-old’s course form is actually very strong.

In his limited novice handicap chase in November here on the Old Course Crebilly was sent off favourite. He came down two from home, leaving the race to the very talented Ginny’s Destiny who is third-favourite for a Grade 1 today and he may have beaten him.

After that Crebilly was fourth to the same horse in a novice race in December on the New Course before landing a small race at Exeter in heavy conditions.

He has the class, knows the course, will stay and is probably around 7lbs better than his official mark too.

Frero Banbou 

We wouldn’t put it past Venetia Williams and Charlie Deutsch bagging a winner, so with the human talent not in question it’s up to the equine star to do the business and Frero Banbou has a chance.

The nine-year-old hasn’t won for a long time and is pretty exposed, but he’s not finished quite yet and is getting back to a workable mark.

Il Ridoto 

Freddie Gingell takes 5lbs off the back of Paul Nicholls’ Il Ridoto, a horse in a similar position to Frero Banbou.

That is to say he’s an experienced type who hasn’t won for a good while, though he retains plenty of talent and he went close enough when a beaten favourite here on Trials Day in late January. He may need to just come down in the weights a little more.

In Excelsis Deo 

Another in with a shot for owner JP McManus is In Excelsis Deo. Jonathan Burke is up top for Harry Fry this time and the pair must be pretty confident of their chances, at least for a place.

A six-year-old with only seven chases under his belt, he comes under the category of “likely to improve” and so we have to keep that in mind.

Second around here over two miles in December, he was sent off 6/4 favourite for his next race but came a cropper at the last. He’s up 4lbs, but had he stayed up and won at Sandown he may have been even higher in the weights.

Shakem Up’Arry 

Rather than being done, Ben Pauling’s ten-year-old may just be peaking and he comes into this one with some of the most obvious form pointers.

Not least of those is his commanding win in the New Year’s Day Handicap Chase around Cheltenham ten weeks ago.

He battled a good field and some heavy ground to prevail by 7½ lengths from Frero Banbou that day and it’s form that’s hard to ignore.

Theatre Man

More of an up-and-coming type is Theatre Man, one of the favourites with Harry Cobden on board for trainer Richard Bandey.

Cobden replaces Harry Bannister for this race with Theatre Man having not won since last March. He’s had three goes since then at the beginning of his chasing career and while there has been no gold medal yet, he’s improved nicely with each run and could actually be significantly ahead of his handicap mark.

Summary

We could argue that this is a case of another Cheltenham handicap, another major contender for JP McManus.

Many such runners are over bet, but they may just be getting one right here in the shape of CREBILLY whose credentials are hard to ignore.

The no.1 thing we want in a race like this is for a horse to be ahead of the handicapper and Crebilly most certainly is, by quite some way. It’s not as though he can’t handle this course or some testing ground either so there is a lot to like about him.

Theatre Man remains of interest at the weights, while Frero Banbou will look to turn the tables on Shakem Up’Arry after their meeting in the new year.