 1st Kendal Cavalier Kendal Cavalier's win has shown that he is an out and out stayer and the testing ground has made this seem like 4 miles plus and not just the 3 miles 5 1/2 furlongs. He has shown that he still may have a little improvement to come. This is obviously his best run to date and last season his win at Cheltenham in April when he had Torduff Express behind now looks even better. Who's to say that he won't also get the Grand National this year especially if the ground turns out to be soft.  Nigel Hawk The trainer has only had the horse for 10 days before the race and this would have been his best result so far as a trainer. Nigel of course had a good career as a National Hunt jockey and his pinnacle as a jockey must have been when winning the Grand National on the last time that it was Sponsored by Seagram in 1991. Strangely the horse was not owned by the sponsors although it was also called Seagram.  Barry Fenton The Jockey who gets a few good rides showed his class last year when winning at the Cheltenham Festival on Top Cees. He has ridden Kendal before when ridding him over hurdles when he was trained by his boss Toby Balding.  2nd Fiddling The Facts Fiddling The Facts is a decent mare and is still quite young at 7 (1998) . She has shown good form in winning at Kempton park last December when getting the better of the third today Forest Ivory. But afterwards her form went wrong and she never seemed to run up to her potential . Given her great run here and showing that she still had some finishing speed here it is obvious that she could be a first class horse but she must get soft ground to show anything.  Nicky Henderson Her trainer is one of the top class trainers who's prize money ran to almost £350,000 last year, He has quite a few young horses in his stable this year and he will hopefully be bettering his 54 winners last year.  Mick Fitzgerald Is one of our top jockeys who in the past have won a lot of top class races and of course in 1996 he rode Rough quest to victory in the Grand National.  3rd Forest Ivory Forest Ivory is decent chaser who again at 7 is still quite young, He has won two moderate chases at Bangor and Worcester He was second to Fiddling The Facts at Kempton and did not seem to jump very well. In his Hurdle days he won a Grade 1 at Aintree so who knows there may be more to come from this horse.  D.Nicholson is in the top class of any trainers and has the very best chasers and hurdlers under his control and subsequently he wins top class races throughout any year. This year he has had two of his best horses in Viking Flagship and Barton Bank retire but it would take a long time to go through all the good horses he has still in his yard. He is a man who has great talent in getting the best out of a horse and will again this year figure in the top class contests.  Adrian Maguire Is a top class jockey who has been riding a lot of David Nicholsons horses for some time now. He has missed two Cheltenham meetings in the past and this year I hope will be a great one for Adrian. It should not be forgotten however that he has already won the Gold Cup in 1992 on Cool Ground when he gave the horse a finish that was second to none and this is where his strength as a rider is. In a tight finish his strength and Style means that he gets every last drop from the tank.
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