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Captain's Blog - Monday 19th November

For starters it is still as clear as it was last season that Messrs Nicholls, Henderson and Pipe are set to dominate the jumps scene once again. The odd intervention from the likes of Mark Bradstock prevents total monopoly, but only just.

Did we see a future Festival winner? This is a tough one to answer as the Festival is a long way off and targets for many horses are far from set in stone.

However if there is to be one I would point to Dodging Bullets, Captain Conan and Al Ferof. All three are the obvious ones and have a touch of class. There will be a lurker or two from this meeting who run well at the Festival, but they are hard to identify at this stage.

Two to follow are Bouggler and Rattan. Bouggler came back off a long lay off and showed up well for a long way yesterday in the Listed Handicap Hurdle won by Goulanes. He actually finished last in the end, but the way he travelled through the race before getting tired promises much for the future. Rattan ran very well behind Olofi in the Racing Post Hurdle. He hit the first hurdle then having been held up made good headway in the home straight to finish on the heels of the leaders. He could be an interesting horse for the County Hurdle in March.

One jockey that I was Impressed with apart from the peerless Ruby Walsh was Danny Mullins. He won the bumper on Anonis gave Rattan a good ride and was third on Black Benny at 33/1 behind Double Ross. He seems to understand pace and is stylish as well as strong, he is a young jockey to keep an eye on.

My selection today is Rasaman in the 4.30 at Wolverhampton. He is well drawn, has Graham Lee on board and is well treated on his old form. There are a number of horses in the race who look like they have had enough racing for a while and this fellow seems to be just finding his feet. He is about 6/1 at the time of writing and will hopefully give us a run for our money and get the week off to a decent start.

Today's Selection

4.30 Wolverhampton - Rasaman (8/1 bet365)

* If I have a strong view about a selection I will always make that apparent and I scale the confidence I have in my selections. One is minimum faith and 10 is maximum bet stuff.