Hot To Trot: Mews a Jefferson aeroplane?

Jumps trainer - Malcolm Jefferson

Brian Hughes has been in the form of his life in recent weeks, riding a whopping 31 winners in November (Sir Tony McCoy holds the record number of winners in a month with 40) which included a five-timer (and two seconds) at Musselburgh and a four-timer at Sedgefield. Perhaps less well documented in the news has been the form of the yard he is attached to, but Malcolm Jefferson certainly deserves a mention in this regard. The yard sent out nine winners from 26 runners in November, a strike-rate of 35%, and it could definitely pay to continue to give their runners plenty of respect going forward. Jefferson is set to unleash his unbeaten bumper horse Mount Mews - one of our Fifty To Follow this season - in the opening race at Kelso on Sunday. Mount Mews was value for more on top of the 10 lengths he won his second bumper by in May, and with plenty of size about him, looks an exciting recruit to jumps. Jefferson and Hughes could double up in the third race on the card on Sunday with Kelka, who remains open to further improvement after just two starts over hurdles, and promises to be suited by the step up to two and a half miles on Sunday.

Flat trainer – Jamie Osborne

Battalion is not the most straightforward, but he seems to have benefited from the switch to the in-form Jamie Osborne yard (had left William Haggas) and gave the trainer his fourth winner of November when winning a minor event at Chelmsford last week by four lengths. There may be more valuable prizes to be won with Battalion further down the line, but Osborne has a few interesting entries in the coming week that could also be worth keeping an eye out for. Heads You Win was much better than the bare result when well beaten at Southwell last month, having a hopeless task from her position, and she could bounce back to form upped in trip at Lingfield on Wednesday. Gentleman Giles cost €90,000 as a yearling and should be capable of better than he has shown to date at some stage. There's a chance he might have needed his first run for three months, which came on his handicap debut at Wolverhampton (easy to back) in late-November, and he'll be worth monitoring in the market if taking up his entry at Chelmsford next week.

Under the radar – Sandy Thomson

Seeyouatmidnight was unable to deal with the stiffest test of his career in the Betfair Chase last month and failed to complete the race, but despite his yard star’s flop, Sandy Thomson still has plenty to be positive about, having had four winners from 13 runners in November overall (31% strike-rate). Thomson saddled 16 winners in 2015/16, but is already on 9 at the mid-way stage this season. Hopes will be high of going on to better that tally, and he also has a couple of good chances on Kelso’s card on Sunday. The first is The Dutchman, who tops the Timeform ratings for an interesting novices’ chase at 12:50 after making a winning start to life over fences at Wetherby last month. He will face a stiff task if Aux Ptits Soins matches his very smart hurdles form, but Paul Nicholls’ runner ran some way below that on his chasing debut at Exeter last time. Thomson is bidding for a hat-trick of wins in the Scottish Borders National on Sunday, having won the race with Neptune Equester for the past two seasons. His entrant this year, Harry The Viking, arrives on the back of a long losing run, but should be well suited by the gruelling test of stamina.