HECTOR'S CHOICE AIMING TO GO ONE BETTER AT CHELTENHAM ON NEW YEAR'S DAY

PRECAUTIONARY INSPECTION Meeting: New Year's Day Dates: Tuesday, January 1, 2013 Gates Open: 10.30am First Race: 12.15pm Admission prices from £12. Go to www.cheltenham.co.uk for further information Precautionary inspection - 10am, Sunday, December 30 Cheltenham hopes to stage an exciting seven-race card this Tuesday, January 1, headlined by the £50,000 Grade Three BetVictor.com Handicap Chase (2.30pm) over two miles and five furlongs. The valuable contest has attracted 24 entries headed by the Philip Hobbs-trained pair Wishfull Thinking (11st 12lb) and Menorah (11st 10ib), who bounced back to winning ways with a comfortable three and a half length victory in the Group Two Peterborough Chase at Kempton on December 27. The entries also include impressive 11-length Paul Stewart IronSpine Charity Challenge Gold Cup winner Unioniste (10st 12lb), who is one of four possible contenders for Paul Nicholls. The champion trainer could also saddle five-time course scorer Poquelin (11st 10lb), former high-class novice chaser Ghizao (11st 5lb) and Current Event (10st). Richard Lee is set to represented by Hector's Choice (10st 12lb), who went down by a length and a half to Calgary Bay in last year's renewal before returning to the home of Jump racing in April to win the Grade Two Ceres Estates Silver Trophy by four and a half lengths. The eight-year-old was pulled up on his seasonal reappearance in the Old Roan Chase at Aintree in October but showed promise when fourth behind Alan King's Bless The Wings (11st) in a competitive handicap chase at Newbury on November 30. Lee revealed: "The plan is to run Hector's Choice in the BetVictor.com Handicap Chase and Jamie Moore has been booked to ride. "He has been in grand form since Newbury and he was second in the BetVictor.com Handicap Chase last year but it looks like being a very good race. "He won very nicely Cheltenham at the end of last season but whether this softer ground will suit him as much, I don't know, but it's the same for all of them. "He has found life a bit tougher this season because he has gone up in the handicap so much but he isn't going to drop in the handicap by standing in his stable. "We have been debating whether or not we should go up to three miles with him but we ran him in the Racing Plus Chase last year at Kempton and he didn't appear to quite get it, so we are running over two miles and five furlongs on softer ground." Other notable entries for the BetVictor.com Handicap Chase include Paddy Power Gold Cup third Nadiya De La Vega (10st 9lb), Becher Handicap Chase third Big Fella Thanks (10st 9lb)and Tartak (10st 6lb). The one Irish-trained entry is the unexposed seven-year-old Hidden Cyclone (11st 4lb), who lines up in this afternoon's Grade One Lexus Chase at Leopardstown. Tuesday's card is also likely to feature a mouth-watering clash between dual Grade One winner Oscar Whisky and 2011 Stan James Champion Hurdle runner-up Peddlers Cross in the £25,000 Centaur Hurdle (3.05pm, 12 entries) over an extended two and a half miles. Some of the country's leading novices' chasers will be hoping to enhance their reputations in the £32,000 Grade Two Cheltenham Pony Club Raceday Novices' Chase (1.20pm - 13 entries)). The two mile and five furlong contest has been won by subsequent Grade One scorers My Way De Solzen and The Listener, and Nicky Henderson's Captain Conan is set to line up. Racing is scheduled to start at 12.15pm with the £10,000 Neptune Investment Management Novices' Hurdle (26 entries) and the entries for the extended two and a half mile contest are headed by unbeaten hurdlers Clondaw Kaempfer, Easter Day and Grands Crus' full-brother Gevrey Chambertin. The action also includes the £20,000 Cheltenham Mobile Apps Handicap Chase (12.45pm, 21 entries), the £20,000 Mirrors Punters Club Handicap Hurdle (1.55pm, 21 entries) and concludes with the £16,000 Listed EBF "High Sheriff Of Gloucestershire's" Junior Bumper (3.40pm, 18 entries). GOING HEAVY AND A PRECAUTIONARY INSPECTION ANNOUNCED The going at Cheltenham remains Heavy after seven millimetres of rain yesterday. The GoingStick reading at 10am was 4.1. In view of the current forecast, which predicts up to 27 millimetres of rain before Tuesday, January 1, Cheltenham Racecourse will hold a precautionary inspection on Sunday (December 30) at 10am. Simon Claisse, Clerk of the Course at Cheltenham, commented at 11.30am today: "The going is heavy at the moment and the course is raceable but, with more rain forecast over the next few days, it is sensible to hold a precautionary inspection on Sunday. "The forecast says we could get a couple of millimetres today, with the prediction being for seven to eight millimetres tomorrow (Saturday), four to five millimetres on Sunday and 11 to 13 millimetres on Monday." Web: www.cheltenham.co.uk Mobile Apps: http://www.cheltenham.co.uk/about/mobile-apps/ Twitter: @CheltenhamRaces Facebook: www.facebook.com/thehomeofjumpracing