GBR Fantasy Jumps Series 2014-2015

The Coral Welsh Grand National at Chepstow was another lucrative source of points for our leading stable.

Big Saturday races on heavy ground are trainer Venetia Williams' speciality and she proved this again with Emperor's Choice (9/1) giving her a second success in the Welsh Grand National. The seven-year-old rallied in after the final fence to beat Benvolio (11/1) by a short head.

Emperor's Choice and Benvolio were our two selections in the race but, with regard to earning points, it would have been better if the placings had been reversed. Nevertheless, we still earned over 300 points on the race in total. Combined with the 294 points (Silviniaco Conti (15/8f), Al Ferof (7/1)) we took from the King George VI Chase at Kempton Park on Boxing Day and have moved to around 150th place in the leaderboard.

There is now the option to make a few changes to the stable jockeys and trainers before the next race in the series at Sandown on 3 January 2015.

GBR Fantasy Jumps Series 2014-2015

Reve de Sivola (13/2) battled to victory for a third time in the JLT Long Walk Hurdle at Ascot on Saturday, defeating Paul Nicholls' Zarkandar (4/6f) in the process.

Our leading stable picked up 125 points in the race and has leapt inside the top 650 stables, which is our best performance to date in any of the fantasy racing games.

But it could all change - for the better or worse - in the busy Christmas and New Year racing programme. December still has the King George VI Chase (Kempton Park) on Boxing Day and the Coral Welsh National (Chepstow) the day after to come. Only then can changes be made to our stables to prepare them for the busy January programme which starts at Sandown Park on 3 January 2015 with the HBLB Handicap Chase.

Let's hope we haven't peaked too soon - the Grand National is a long way off!

GBR Fantasy Jumps Series 2014-2015

Our leading stable earned 375 points on Saturday, taking the total past 1,000 points and the combination strategy worked a treat, although it was not the Nicholls-Twiston-Davies partnership that did the business this time.

Instead Venetia Williams and Niceonefrankie (16/1) won 236 points for victory in the Caspian Caviar Gold Cup at Cheltenham. Unfortunately, jockey Aidan Coleman is not in our stable to complete the trio.

Later on the card The New One (4/7f) was not a hard selection to make in the Stan James International Hurdle but still contributed almost 60 points in partnership with Sam Twiston-Davies.

GBR Fantasy Jumps Series 2014-2015

The "combinations" strategy is working well for us in the fantasy jumps game. Very simply, if a trainer-jockey combination has a runner in the race, that is the selection because if it wins you really rack up the points.

Of course, it also helps that the Paul Nicholls-Sam Twiston-Davies partnership has been so successful in the early part of the season.

In last weekend's Tingle Creek Chase at Sandown Park the trio of Dodging Bullets (9/1), Nicholls and Twiston-Davies earned 159 points. Out leading stable is just outside the top 1,000 with more than 600 points earned already.

Let's see how we get on at Cheltenham this weekend.