StanJames.com spokesman Rory Jiwani says, “Barry Geraghty had an armchair ride on Simonsig but the six-year-old made a couple of errors late on which took the shine off an otherwise impressive performance. He won’t be able to make those sort of mistakes in the Supreme, and we’re prepared to go top price about him in what looks like a wide-open heat. He’s 7/1 from 8/1 in our book.

“Galileo’s Choice was similarly dominant in winning at Fairyhouse and we cut Dermot Weld’s prospect from 12/1 from 10/1. He proved popular at that price so we had to trim him further to 9/1.

“Baby Shine was unlucky to finish behind It’s A Gimme in a good contest at Southwell after jockey Dominic Elsworth tried for a gap which wasn’t there. She would have won convincingly and we’ve cut her from 50/1 to 25/1 for the Supreme. The winner is unchanged at 20/1 for the Neptune Investment Hurdle.”

Supreme Novices’ Hurdle antepost betting (EW 1/4 1,2,3):

Simonsig 7/1

Steps To Freedom 8/1

Midnight Game 8/1

Galileo’s Choice 9/1

Cinders And Ashes 10/1

Darlan 12/1

Vulcanite 12/1

Tetlami 14/1

Trifolium 14/1

16/1 bar

affkey=ʺ830f75fdc59d4d2976eaba9d7b5dc47eʺ;boxid=6300;

Simonsig has been cut from 8s to 6/1 for the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle with Betvictor and from 12s to 8s for the Neptune after his fluent success in the BetVictor Morebattle Hurdle at Kelso earlier this afternoon.

Spokesperson Charlie McCann; “The way Simonsig travelled would suggest he has a very high cruising speed and we would be surprised if he took Fingal Bay on in the Neptune although he made slight mistakes at three of his hurdles. Quicker ground over the minimum trip could find him out but he will enjoy the end-to-end gallop and is a major player for whatever race he takes in at the Festival.”

Earlier Galileo’s Choice was cut from 8s from 10s for the Supreme after winning at Fairyhouse.

Nicky Henderson’s last visit to this Borders track, for the same fixture two years ago, ended with defeat for his 1-14 favourite Zaynar and a well-refreshed punter singing at the Lambourn trainer that he had been sent homeward to think again. But Henderson regrouped and came back stronger, winning with all three runners here on Wednesday including Simonsig, who will run next at the Cheltenham Festival.

Which race the imposing grey will be aimed at remains a tricky subject, however. He cruised home in the Morebattle here over the intermediate distance of 2¼ miles in a manner that offered no decisive answer to the question of whether he would prefer a shorter trip in the Supreme Novice Hurdle, for which he is 13-2 favourite, or an extra three furlongs in the Neptune, for which he is 12-1.

“I think you’d have to be impressed,” was the trainer’s immediate reaction, “but I don’t know what we’ve quite learned.” The only race he emphatically ruled out was the Albert Bartlett, which would have been an appropriate target, as Simonsig is owned by the Bartlett heir, Ronnie.

After conferring with Barry Geraghty, the jockey who rode all three winners, Henderson reported: “Barry’s leaning towards a bit further”. The rider apparently feels Simonsig would be more likely to hold his position as the field race down the Cheltenham hill if he were travelling at a slightly slower pace.

Against that Henderson feels the Neptune looks a stronger race than the Supreme, not least because it would mean a rematch with Fingal Bay, who beat Simonsig at Sandown in December. Though he could not offer specifics, the trainer thinks his runner had an off day.

“There might have been reasons for it because it looked, at the second-last, for all the world as if he was going to run all over the other horse and then he sort of didn’t get home. Now, was that lack of stamina? I don’t actually think it was.

“I’m sorry to sit on the fence but I’ve got to say it’s where I am at the moment.” Henderson said that his choice of target would make no difference to the horse’s training regime over the next month “but on the other hand one’s got to be fair to everybody else and try and let them know what we’re going to do”.

The Festival is probably not on the agenda for Henderson’s other two winners here, Bellvano, who is thought to be unsuited by the Cheltenham hill, and Lyvius, who may lack the necessary experience for the Triumph Hurdle. Aintree’s Grand National meeting was said by the trainer to be a more likely target for both.

While delighted to have had “a little change of luck” at this track, Henderson had bad news to relate of Broadbackbob, a 20-1 shot for the Neptune. The horse, he said, had been injured on his last start and was now set to miss the Festival.

Bad news is in ready supply at this time of year, as any injury means another contender is out of Cheltenham, and there were a couple of high-profile examples on Wednesday. Graham Lee is expected to be on the sidelines for some six months, having dislocated a hip in a fall at Southwell.

Last Instalment will also not race again this season, having become a leading fancy for the Festival’s RSA Chase by winning an Irish Grade One only days ago. He was described as “a little sore” by his trainer, Philip Fenton.

Thursday’s Game Spirit Chase lost some of its lustre when Cue Card was declared a non-runner after knocking a fetlock joint. “He’ll be fine in a few days,” said Colin Tizzard, his trainer, “but we’ll have to go straight to Cheltenham now.”

Dabirsim, one of the best two-year-olds in Europe last year, will not make his British debut in the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket. His trainer, Christophe Ferland, said it had been decided to keep him in his native France for the equivalent Classic after a prep-race in April.

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How many of the big four champions will retain their Cheltenham crowns

Paddy Power: 11-8 exactly two, 5-2 exactly one, 11-4 exactly three, 16 none, 18 all four

The 20,000-or-so who turned up in 1997 to watch Lord Gyllene win the Grand National, delayed for 48 hours after a bomb scare, might take issue with the suggestion that Newbury’s meeting on Friday could be the best-ever free day’s racing.

However, that is how the sponsors Betfair, Newbury and Racing For Change plan to promote the rescheduled “Super Saturday” card that is set to feature some of the biggest names in jumps racing, which in a parallel of the famous “free days” at Wimbledon and test cricket matches, will not cost a penny.

“It’s a big day for Betfair and we wanted to get as many people in as possible,” said the company’s spokesman, Tony Calvin. “In order to ensure that all of the big names were still going to come, we were prepared to find the extra needed to keep the prize money up and having done that we didn’t want to have the horses racing in front of empty stands. We’ll be getting the message across to all of our customers and across social media that this is going to be the best free day’s racing imaginable.”

Racing For Change confirmed they are sending press releases promoting Friday’s racing to money-saving and “free things to do” websites. They also plan to email those who took part in the free racing programme they organised in 2011.

The deferment of this year’s meeting comes in considerably more pleasant circumstances than 12 months ago when just 3,000 turned up to see the equivalent meeting – delayed from the previous Saturday after two horses were electrocuted in a freak parade-ring accident.

But with the card’s new sponsors keen to promote the racing, the decision to offer free admission should be rewarded with a sizeable crowd – especially as the meeting falls during the half-term holidays.

In order to maintain the same prize money as the original card, the Levy Board agreed to make the same £70,000 grant that they would have done for last Saturday.

“Despite the fact that the meeting is unlikely to attract as much betting and generate as much Levy turnover as if it were on a Saturday, it was felt that these were important races and that we wanted to support all of the other parties who worked to reschedule the meeting,” said the operations director, Alan Delmonte.

Betfair went further, increasing their prize money contribution by some 25% and agreeing what Calvin described as “a package” with the racecourse that would see free admission offered.

Nicky Henderson has confirmed that “as things stand” he still plans to run both the 2011 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Long Run and exciting novice chaser Sprinter Sacre among others at Newbury.

“Long Run doesn’t need to run, but we have always felt that he could just do with that little bit of extra experience and it is welcome for us that the race has been saved,” said the trainer.

Sam Waley-Cohen is free to ride Long Run despite a recent three-day ban for a whip offence. The presence of the Grade One Scilly Isles Novice Chase on the card allows for that suspension to be deferred.

Long Run’s talented but injury-prone stablemate Riverside Theatre is set to make his comeback at Ascot on Saturday in the Betfair Ascot Chase. He has been off the course with a fractured pelvis since winning the same race 12 months ago.

However, Henderson ‘s 2010 Champion Hurdle winner Binocular will not be making the long journey north for the Morebattle Hurdle at Kelso to complete preparations in his bid to regain the champion’s crown.

“He’ll go straight to Cheltenham now,” said Frank Berry, racing manager to his owner, JP McManus. “Nicky doesn’t think it will be a problem. Hopefully we have a trouble-free run and the horse gets there in top form.”

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Ireland completed the process of drawing up its first team for the Festival here on Sunday, and may have found a candidate to slot into the most significant position of all. Quel Esprit could not jump a fence when it really mattered in his first season as a chaser, but there was a real polish about him as he took the Hennessy Gold Cup and his new-found reliability is now likely to be tested against Kauto Star and Long Run in the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

The last Hennessy winner to follow up in the Gold Cup was Imperial Call in 1996, and this did not look a strong renewal beforehand after three significant scratching in the days running up to the race. Yet as a fresh, improving second-season chaser whose winning thread has taken him to victory in Ireland’s own Gold Cup, he deserves a place in the field at the Festival, and will be one of the more popular each-way choices.

Quel Esprit’s success was rarely in doubt, and it was also Willie Mullins’s eighth win in the Grade One event, though oddly, after victories with riders including Richard Dunwoody, Richard Johnson and David Casey, Mullins’s first with Ruby Walsh in the saddle.

“He jumped and galloped all day,” Mullins said, “which is what we were hoping he’d do as a younger horse and things just didn’t pan out. But he’s got it all together this year and Ruby gave him a very brave ride. He wasn’t afraid to let him get to the front and then jump from fence to fence.

“We always thought he was a fantastic jumper, so were disappointed and surprised when he fell [last season]. We did get a little wind operation done with him during the off season, so maybe he was just coming under pressure in those proper races from his wind. I don’t know, but that could be the difference, or maybe he’s just matured. But he certainly didn’t come under pressure today. At the fourth-last and third-last, when he needed the jumps, Ruby asked him and he gave him the jumps.”

Quel Esprit is top-priced at 20-1 for the Gold Cup, but that makes him the sixth-choice in a market which still includes the novice Grands Crus, who now seems more likely to contest the RSA Chase at the Festival. Though Walsh will be aboard Kauto Star at Cheltenham if all goes well, Mullins’s runner may well be more like a 12-1 chance by the time the tapes go up.

Last Instalment, who made all the running to take the Grade One Dr PJ Moriarty Novice Chase, is the shortest price of any winner on Sunday’s card for his intended target at the Festival, though if the ground comes up very fast at Cheltenham next month, he may not even make it to the ferry. If the going is suitable, though, he will be a major contender for the RSA Chase, and is generally a 6-1 chance.

“Leaving the back straight they were stacking up behind him,” Philip Fenton, Last Instalment’s trainer, said. “I thought maybe the horses that were quicker than him over hurdles were going to come and do him. But when Davy [Russell] got serious with him he answered every call, which is the sign of a good horse.

“I’m sure the RSA will be [the race for him] and I’m sure his old rival First Lieutenant [also owned by Gigginstown Stud] will turn up as well. This ground is as quick as he’d want it, which is yielding to soft, so we’d love to see lots of rain before Cheltenham. He’s a big, top-heavy horse [and] if it came up too quick, I doubt he’d go.”

There was an unexpected result in the Deloitte Novice Hurdle as Benefficient, the 50-1 outsider of the field, made all the running to beat Sous Les Cieux, the 2-1 favourite. Tony Martin’s hurdler had been pulled up on his last start, but returned to winning form to the delight of his owner, Aidan Shiels, who runs an Irish bar in New York and had flown in with a large party of regulars to celebrate his 50th birthday.

“He was disappointing last time, but those things happen,” Martin said. “It was probably the ground last time, and he’s just a proper, old-fashioned horse. He’s in everything at Cheltenham and after that, I’d say that he has to go.”

Benefficient is 20-1 with Ladbrokes for both the Neptune Novice Hurdle over two miles and five furlongs, which is his more likely target, and the Albert Bartlett Novice Hurdle over three miles.

Hisaabaat, the runner-up on his three previous starts, responded well to first-time blinkers to take the Grade One Spring Juvenile Hurdle and will now head to the Triumph Hurdle next month. “He’s come on quite a bit since last time,” Dermot Weld, his trainer, said. “He’s what I call a made hurdler, he’s an ex-Flat horse, he’s learned his job well and he’s progressive.”

Greg Wood’s Festival clues from Leopardstown on Sunday

Quel Esprit – Cheltenham Gold Cup

No hint of former fragility in Hennessy Gold Cup at Leopardstown; would have live each-way chance in the Festival highlight

Ut De Sivola – Triumph Hurdle

Short as 9-1 for Triumph yesterday morning, but balloon burst with a poor seventh-place finish at Leopardstown

Captain Conan – novice hurdles

Nicky Henderson’s runner represented British novice form in the Deloitte Hurdle, but without distinction

Pique Sous – Festival Bumper

Impressive four-length winner of the Leopardstown bumper after being prominent throughout; looks to have solid chance next month

Salsify – Foxhunter Chase

Progressive, and did his Cheltenham claims no harm at all; odds of 12-1 looks very fair

//

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The race sponsor’s spokesman Rory Jiwani says, “The money came after Willie Mullins said Hurricane Fly was ‘jumping out of his skin at the moment’ and we’ve had to trim the favourite in from 4/5 to 8/11.

“Mullins is set for another excellent opening day to the Festival with Quevega appearing to have a clear path to a fourth David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle. With Unaccompanied not travelling to Cheltenham and Colm Murphy saying Voler La Vedette is World Hurdle-bound, Quevega is now 4/6 from 4/5 to retain her title.

“If you fancy both Hurricane Fly and Quevega, StanJames.com are offering 2/1 that both retain their crowns.”

• Gold Cup winner to have Cheltenham Festival prep race
• Oscar Whisky wins easily on Kempton all-weather card

Betfair Day at Newbury, one of the most valuable cards of the jumps season outside the major Festivals, will be staged almost in its entirety next Friday afternoon after it was lost to the weather in its traditional Saturday slot for the third time in seven years. Entrance to the track will be free.

The meeting was called off morning after the track was covered by 4cm of snow on Thursday night.

Negotiations between the British Horseracing Authority, Betfair, the Levy Board and Channel 4 Racing to guarantee coverage and funding of the meeting continued for much of the day, and concluded when Channel 4 agreed to televise the main events on the rearranged card in a programme between 12.10 and 1.40.

The Grade One Scilly Isles Novice Chase, originally switched to Newbury from Sandown the previous weekend, will remain as part of a seven-race meeting. Original entries will stand for the Betfair Hurdle, in for which Zarkandar, last year’s Triumph Hurdle winner, was the ante-post favourite, while all other races will be reopened with entries to be made by noon on Saturday. The inclusion of a Grade One race on the card also means that Sam Waley-Cohen, who would otherwise be serving a suspension for a whip offence, will be free to ride Long Run, last year’s Gold Cup winner, in the Denman Chase.

The rescheduling of the Newbury card, along with a weather forecast that predicts a steady rise in temperatures in Berkshire over the next few days, will be a considerable relief to trainers, who need to get a final run into major contenders for next month’s Cheltenham Festival.

Nicky Henderson, whose team for the Newbury meeting was expected to include both Long Run and Sprinter Sacre, the ante-post favourite for the Arkle Trophy, said here that he expects both to line up for the rearranged meeting.

“Long Run went to Cheltenham last year without a run [after Christmas] but my inclination is just that he is probably better with a race,” Henderson said. “But it’s getting close enough now, you just like getting these things out of the way or not doing them at all, one of the two.

“There are things we’ve got to talk about, but it is certainly my intention to run [Long Run] at the moment. At this time of year, we’re desperate for the races, to be honest. I would like Sprinter Sacre to have another run, but the only place that Binocular [the 2010 Champion Hurdle winner] can go is [the Morebattle Hurdle at] Kelso [on Wednesday] or probably nowhere at all, because I really can’t see any alternative for him.”

Henderson saddled a short-priced double here after the track survived the overnight snow to stage a card of two-mile Flat races for National Hunt horses on its Polytrack circuit.

Henderson took the second race with Tetlami, a likely runner in the Supreme Novice Hurdle at Cheltenham next month, while Oscar Whisky, a contender for the World Hurdle at the Festival, took the concluding event at odds of 1-16.

“In fairness to both of them, it was exactly what I wanted to do,” Henderson said. “They didn’t need hard races and they’ve had really good gallops. It just gives us a chance to back off a week. What Barry [Geraghty] did say was that [Oscar Whisky's] race felt like the best race by a long way. The only other race I could see for Oscar Whisky was the National Spirit at Fontwell. Two and a half miles in very soft ground with less than three weeks [before the World Hurdle], you’re just taking it close enough. So job done.”

“Well done Kempton and the BHA [for staging the meeting] because it helps us. It’s a mixed bag of horses we’ve brought here but we’ve brought them here for various reasons. It’s half a race, if that, it’s more than a gallop but it’s not a race, but it helps them.”

Tetlami is top-priced at 16-1 for the Supreme Novice Hurdle, a race in which Henderson may field an extensive team. “Keys should have run tomorrow, and Simonsig will run next week, they must have races,” the trainer said. “All The Aces needs a run, and there’s also Darlan [though] some of them might move up to the two-and-a-half-mile division.”

The only race that will be missing from the rearranged Newbury card is its three-mile novice chase, which was due to provide Grands Crus with his final race before Cheltenham, and help connections to decide whether to run in the RSA Chase for novices or in the Gold Cup.

The race will be lost as Ascot is due to stage the Reynoldstown Novice Chase over the same trip the following day, though David Pipe, the trainer of Grands Crus, said on Friday that he has yet to debate the possibility of a run in the Reynoldstown with the owners of Grands Crus. “I’ve not had a chance to discuss it with the owners, but he doesn’t have to have another run [before Cheltenham],” Pipe said. “He’s got enough experience already.”

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The inaugural Betfair Super Saturday at Newbury has been lost to the weather after the track received 4cm of snow overnight. The course was inspected at 9am on Friday and the decision then taken that prospects for the most valuable racecard before the Cheltenham Festival next month were hopeless.

However, there will be National Hunt racing of a sort in Britain on Friday, after Kempton’s meeting of Flat events designed for jumping horses received the go-ahead following an inspection at 8am. Cheltenham Festival World Hurdle hope Oscar Whisky is schedueld to run in the last race of the day.

Twelve months ago the same Newbury meeting was abandoned after the first race when a freak accident led to the deaths of two horses through electrocution. After safety testing was completed, the meeting was rescheduled to the following Friday and a similar timetable – albeit in less tragic circumstances – is rumoured to be under consideration again.

However, British Horseracing Authority race-planning chiefs would be reluctant to consider rescheduling the meeting if there is any risk of further abandonment and next week’s weather forecast is sure to figure prominently in discussions, as will the enthusiasm of sponsors Betfair to offer the same level of support for a meeting if it takes place in a midweek slot.

“We’ve had to abandon,” Richard Osgood, Newbury’s clerk of the course, said on Friday morning. “There’s snow on the covers and there is no predicted rise in temperatures or rain which would help shift it. There have been preliminary discussions about restaging the fixture and we are looking to hold it next week but at this stage I know nothing more than that.”

The loss of the Newbury card, with events including the Betfair Hurdle [formerly the Totesport Trophy], the most valuable handicap hurdle of the season, and the Denman [formerly Aon] Chase, which was expected provide Long Run, last year’s Gold Cup winner, with his prep race for Cheltenham, is a significant setback. Sprinter Sacre, the ante-post favourite for the Arkle Trophy next month, and Zarkandar, the third-favourite for the Champion Hurdle, were also due to appear at the meeting.

With the Festival at Cheltenham due to open on 13 March, the timing of prep races is crucial, and the list of alternative engagements for a horse like Long Run is getting shorter by the day

If the efforts to reschedule Newbury’s key races come to nothing or are again frustrated by the weather, the effects of losing such an important series of Festival trials may still be felt long after the snow has disappeared. The Festival training regimes of a significant number of horses will have been designed around getting a run this weekend, and Nicky Henderson is just one of several leading trainers who has clear concerns about major names – including Long Run and Binocular, the 2010 Champion Hurdle winner – who would benefit from another race ahead of Cheltenham showpiece meeting next month.

Hereford will inspect at 11.30am on Saturday ahead of Sunday’s scheduled National Hunt card, while Exeter will hold an inspection at 8.30am on Sunday morning to decide whether its meeting the same afternoon can go ahead.

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Despite weather worries hanging over most British jumps racing for the next weeks there will be no British-trained runner in the €160,000 Hennessy Gold Cup at Leopardstown on Sunday after Synchronised was pulled out of the contest on Thursday morning.

A month ago, connections had seemed fully set on the race for the Lexus Chase with Frank Berry, racing manager to the owner JP McManus, suggesting that trainer Jonjo O’Neill was “very happy with the horse”.

However, doubts appeared to start setting in afterwards with O’Neill warning that the horse still hadn’t fully recovered from his hard race in the Lexus, and despite being left in the race at the six-day declaration stage on Monday, it appears that the horse is still to satisfy O’Neill with his wellbeing.

“Jonjo’s not happy with him today and he’s not going to send him over for the race,” said Berry. “He won’t run again before [the Festival] and hopefully Jonjo will get him right for the Cheltenham Gold Cup.”

With Jessies Dream and Quito De La Roque already out of the race, that restricts the maximum field for the Hennessy to seven.

Synchronised’s absence could free Tony McCoy to remain in Britain and ride at Exeter, where he is already booked to ride Prince of Pirates for Nicky Henderson.

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StanJames.com spokesman Rory Jiwani says, “This looks set to be one of the best races of the Festival. Solwhit is perhaps the biggest name absentee from the list but there are some seriously good horses in the 27. Sprinter Sacre, Peddlers Cross, Al Ferof, Menorah and Cue Card were all excellent hurdlers and that’s not even taking the Irish challenge into account.

“Paul Nicholls has some interesting contenders, none more so than former Festival winner Sanctuaire who makes his chasing debut at Taunton next Tuesday or at Ludlow the following day. He’s currently 33/1 for the Arkle.”

Racing Post Arkle Chase antepost betting (EW 1/4 1,2,3):

Sprinter Sacre 9/4
Peddlers Cross 9/2
Al Ferof 5/1
Menorah 10/1
Cue Card 10/1
Blackstairmountain 14/1
Bog Warrior 16/1
Poungach 20/1
Kid Cassidy 20/1
Cristal Bonus 20/1
25/1 bar

StanJames.com spokesman Rory Jiwani says, “Zaidpour got first run on Voler La Vedette and held on well to take the Grade 2 contest. We were 20/1 about Willie Mullins’ inmate for the World Hurdle before the race, but we’ve had to cut that to 12/1.

“Unlike second favourite Oscar Whisky, there is little doubt he would stay the trip at Cheltenham although it looks like a battle for second place behind the mighty Big Buck’s. Paul Nicholls’ star goes for his 15th consecutive win in the Cleeve Hurdle on Saturday.

“We’ve left Voler La Vedette unchanged at 14/1 although she still has the option of the David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle at the Festival.”

World Hurdle antepost betting (EW 1/4 1,2,3):

Big Buck’s 8/15
Oscar Whisky 4/1
Thousand Stars 8/1
Zaidpour 12/1
Voler La Vedette 14/1
Bobs Worth 14/1
Quevega 14/1
Mikael D’Haguenet 14/1
So Young 16/1
Mourad 20/1
25/1 bar