FRESH off the back of a brilliant weekend in Cheltenham, Gavin Cromwell will be the trainer to follow for many this weekend, primarily in Cork tomorrow, but also in Ascot today where he sends Yeah Man to take on the Sodexo Live! Gold Cup Handicap Chase (3.45).

The Meath native has nine wins from his 27 runs over the last fortnight, and 15 in all have hit the frame. He runs a pair of impressive beginners’ chase winners in Letsbeclearaboutit and Perceval Legallois in the Grade 3 Paddy Power Feel Like A Favourite Irish EBF Novice Chase in Mallow tomorrow (2.40).

Letsbeclearaboutit, who will be ridden by Sean Flanagan, was much too good for Largy Debut, subsequently second in the Munster National, on his chase debut at Gowran while Perceval Legallois was a smooth winner at Galway.

“They will both have to up their game to win this but they both won their beginners very nicely and we’re hoping they can build on that,” Cromwell told The Irish Field yesterday.

“Letsbeclearaboutit is a horse we’ve always thought has a bit of class and we’re looking forward to seeing what he can do now over fences. Perceval Legallois was a little bit disappointing early on in his career but it was great to see him win the three-mile handicap hurdle at Leopardstown last season and he has really progressed from there. He has taken to fences very well and hopefully he improves for this.

“The pair of them may end up going three miles in time, that sort of trip shouldn’t be a problem.”

Yeah Man hasn’t been seen since finishing second to The Abbey in a three-mile-two-furlong handicap chase at Down Royal in May but he has a lightly-raced profile and was rated a best priced 11/1 chance for the feature handicap chase on the Ascot card today.

On his chances, Cromwell said: “He’s in off a light weight, a couple of pounds out of the handicap. The horses are running in great nick so we decided to let him take his chance. It’s a great pot.

“He was entered in Down Royal before that got called off. It’s great prize money on offer so hopefully he can put up a good performance.”

PENDING a course inspection at 7.00 this morning staying stalwarts Thyme Hill and Dashel Drasher well lock horns in the bet365 West Yorkshire Hurdle at Wetherby (2.25).

Thyme Hill, now trained in partnership by Philip Hobbs and his long-time assistant Johnson White, has been a regular in major staying hurdles over the past few years and rarely runs a bad race.

Last season connections elected to embark on a novice campaign over fences, but while he managed a Grade 1 win in the Kauto Star Novices’ Chase at Kempton, he disappointed in the Brown Advisory at the Cheltenham Festival in March and reverts to the smaller obstacles for his reappearance.

“He’s very well indeed, we’re well happy with him,” said Philip Hobbs. “Maybe his confidence wasn’t great over fences, so we thought we’d start back over hurdles and he handles very soft ground.”

Dashel Drasher has similarly been a fine servant to his trainer Jeremy Scott, proving himself a top-level operator both over hurdles and over fences.

The 10-year-old made a successful start to last season in a small field conditions race at Aintree before finishing second in the Many Clouds Chase, the Relkeel Hurdle, the Cleeve Hurdle and the Stayers’ Hurdle.

An outing at Aintree’s Grand National meeting proved one too many, but Scott is looking forward to her stable star’s return to action.

He said: “He looks a picture. Like a lot of horses he may well need the run, he usually does need the run on his first outing anyway, but he looks very well and looks stronger than ever, so we’ll see how we get on.

“He won at Aintree over two and a half first time out last season. We didn’t feel we had him at his best then and I think he’s probably be in a better place than we did this time last year, anyway.

“It will be soft old ground – it’ll be testing. He does go on that ground, whether it ekes out his stamina a bit much, I don’t know.”