Hot To Trot: Edmunds' house party

Flat Trainer: Ger Lyons, Ireland

Ger Lyons may have had six winners since the start of November, however it is the number of placed horses that he has also had which helps emphasise his good form – 10 in the same period. As the table below shows, Lyons is having his best season for a while in terms of number of winners and Dundalk is his bread and butter.

It’s All A Joke made his all-weather debut at the track earlier this month and ran well on form. He held every chance a furlong out but wandered late on, looking worth a try in headgear, and it would be no surprise to see him fitted with some when he makes his handicap debut back at the track on Thursday. It’s Two O Clock, entered in the same race, justified market confidence to make a winning start over C&D in November and he looks open to improvement.

Kiss The Wind and Dhafeera are entered in the same maiden an hour late. Dhafeera is from the family of high-class performer up to 1½m Mawatheeq and 1000 Guineas winner Ghanaati, and has run well in her two starts at the track to date. Kiss The Wind has had more chances and, though not seen to best effect last time, will likely need to improve to break her maiden tag.

Jumps Trainer: Stuart Edmunds

As the visual above shows, Stuart Edmunds’ horses are often seen to good effect when the going gets testing. Though recent winners Classic Ben and Maria’s Benefit won’t have boosted the Christmas coffers by much, the latter especially continues to be one to keep on-side. She completed her hat-trick at Ludlow earlier this month and is likely to progress further.

Looking ahead, Cloonacool has a couple of entries early in the week, including at Fakenham on Tuesday. He stepped up on his reappearance run five weeks earlier when second at Taunton last month, and for all that his finishing effort was again somewhat underwhelming, he has the class to run another big race. The fellow Nick Brown Racing-owned Kaloci also has an entry in Norfolk. He showed improved form on his stable debut when winning a conditionals/amateur event at the track last time by a length from Ballinslea Bridge.

Under The Radar: Nick Williams

Nick Williams traditionally does well at this time of year after a slow spell over the summer (see chart below), and the likes of Moonlighter and Cabernet d’Alene were high points around the start of December. Coo Star Sivola ran well in defeat at Cheltenham on Saturday, too, and looks one to follow when back in handicaps later in the season.

The opening race at Newbury on Wednesday could be a hot little juvenile hurdle, with a strong set of entries from Alan King and Nicky Henderson in particular, however Erick Le Rouge is a half-brother to the fairly useful hurdler/smart chaser Ornais and he caught the eye on his hurdling debut at Bangor, held back by inexperience. Aimee de Sivola is also well-related (dam a half-sister to high-class hurdler/useful chaser Reve de Sivola) and she shaped with promise when fourth on debut at Warwick; she looks the type to improve.