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THE Cheltenham Festival may only be a month away, but there are still some big prizes to be won leading up to those magnificent four days and this week Haydock Park and Ascot lead the way with a nice mix of graded and handicap action.

The latter category always interests me the most and the 10-runner, class one handicap Chase (3.00) at Ascot has a lovely betting shape to it with course and distance winner Victtorino likely to go off favourite, and a worthy one he is too. But the six-year-old will need a career best effort off a mark of 146 to win his third race from four starts this season, and there are better-value plays further down the betting list and indeed weights.

Once the first few fences down the far side have been safely negotiated then Larry should have a say in proceedings off his light weight, while Do Your Job won nicely at Wetherby last time out and still has a workable handicap mark. However, I shall be having a serious each-way play on SHAN BLUE who has taken time to come to himself, but showed his turn was just around the corner when staying on nicely behind Triple Trade over two-and-a-half miles here last time out.