It’s one of the biggest days in the national hunt season with the Hennessy Gold Cup (3.00) at Newbury and I fancy we could see a huge run from the giant six-year-old Le Reve at an each-way price.

Being such a huge-framed horse he was only ever going to improve as he matured and strengthened up and I thought we saw a completely different horse on his seasonal debut when he handed out a hammering to his class three rivals at Sandown Park.

An 11lbs penalty was fully deserved on the basis of his margin of victory at the Esher track and this will be a totally different task up against classier rivals but I expect him to outstrip his penalty with another huge step forward.

The key to this strapping son of Milan is that he gets into a nice rhythm and even more crucially that the ground continues to dry out. 

If we get genuinely good to soft ground then a price of around 25/1 offers some authentic each-way value in a very competitive renewal.

I have also backed Djakadam ante-post at 10/1, who now trades at 7/2 so I have the best of both worlds, but I couldn’t advise you to back him at the current price. 

This is quite obviously a tough task for a five-year-old, but the fact that Willie Mullins reckons he could be on the cusp of Gold Cup class means that of a rating of just 142, he has to go close here if inexperience doesn’t get the better of him.

Back over fences Fingal Bay is also respected, while the drying ground is a huge plus for both RSA Chase runner-up Smad Place and the hugely underrated Merry King. 

The latter ran a cracking race in the 2013 renewal and had a nice pipe-opener at Ascot last time out and is fancied to reverse that form with What A Warrior.

Earlier on, Chris Pea Green should go close in the 12.50 off top weight. He ran several good races here over hurdles and may give the weight away to Tistory.

The other big race of the day comes up at Newcastle and Irving should gain compensation for a last-flight fall at Wincanton when he looked as though he was coming to win the Elite Hurdle. 

It wasn’t an entirely done deal, but I suspect he would have prevailed and the 2.05 feature isn’t going to take an awful lot of winning.

There are some interesting wagers at Wolverhampton in the evening with Earth Drummer strongly fancied to defy top weight in the mile handicap at 6.15, he has Flow and Energia Flavio to beat.

Later on, Koharu is dropped significantly in class and upped in trip for the 6.45, while the frustrating former November Handicap winner Art Scholar can finally return to winning ways in the extended mile and a half event at 7.45.