THE thaw has arrived and we can only hope that we can have a clear run of racing now, with some big Cheltenham Festival trials to come over the next few weeks, writes Page Fuller. It is not all about Cheltenham, however, and there was a winner at Exeter on Monday who is definitely worth keeping an eye on over the next couple of weeks, despite only winning a Class 4.

Jack Sprat has been a fun horse for connections, landing two handicap hurdles last season, after receiving his opening mark. Despite his size, however, his switch to chasing this season did not go so well. He jumped fine on debut, recording a 7.9 on our Jump Index, and finished very strongly to be a promising fourth. Unfortunately, he did not back that run up.

His jumping fell to pieces the next twice and, despite not being beaten far on either start, it was clear that he would have easily been capable of winning had he jumped better. On his latest try over fences at Huntingdon he was only beaten four lengths but forfeited over six lengths through his jumping.

Crucially, his jumping at both Huntingdon and Exeter scored under 6 on the Jump Index, which was far lower than his normal level of 8 out of 10 over hurdles.

Switched back to hurdles on Monday, he was a changed horse. He found a beautiful jumping rhythm and had by far the largest Lengths Gained Jumping value of +7.85 LGJ. His Jump Index of 7.7 was back on track, demonstrating how much more comfortable he is over these smaller obstacles.

He escapes a penalty for winning a boys’ race, and won’t be reassessed by the handicapper until Tuesday, which means he can run off the same mark until Friday next week. I’d keep an eye on him if connections turn him out again in that time.