Show some Spirit at Musselburgh

Ingleby Spirit can make it a Musselburgh hat-trick for trainer Kevin Ryan in tomorrow’s John Smith’s Scottish County Hurdle as the East Lothian course stages its richest jumps fixture.

The five-year-old is making his handicap bow here but an initial rating of 134 does not look too harsh given the ease of his recent victories.

A fair horse on the level, he has made a seamless transition to hurdling, putting a disappointing debut effort behind him to finish second next time out. Ingleby Spirit has obviously learnt a little for each outing, though, as he then made it third-time lucky with a six-length verdict in a competitive heat here in November. He then followed up in style when seeing off the odds-on favourite by 16 lengths late last month and while he went up 11lb for that success, Ingleby Spirit is still on the upgrade and merits respect. Ryan’s runner has a Supreme entry at Cheltenham and this looks within his compass.

John Ferguson has made quite a splash in the training ranks this term and his Creekside is the choice in the John Smith’s Scottish Triumph Hurdle. Winner of two of his six starts for John Oxx, Creekside made a dream start in the National Hunt sphere when triumphing at Catterick. That was hardly the hottest event of the year but Creekside could do little more than win and evidently impressed enough to merit a couple of Grade One entries. Also on the card, Bold Sir Brian defied some jumping issues last time to notch a surprise success over Lie Forrit and he can follow up in the John Smith’s Future Champions Novices’ Chase. Previously a winner at Hexham, he was not expected to beat his higher-rated rival but he had a little in hand at the line and must surely take all the beating.

Musselburgh will hold a precautionary inspection at 7am tomorrow as officials hope frost doesn’t claim the fixture, but today’s meetings at Wetherby and Sandown have already been abandoned due to frozen tracks.

Meanwhile, owner Dai Walters wants to beat the owners and trainers pitching up against Oscar Whisky in today’s William Hill Welsh Champion Hurdle at Ffos Las, but only as long as they all have a good time. As well as owning a number of horses and a civil engineering company, Walters also owns Ffos Las itself and transformed the Carmarthenshire course from the former site of the largest open cast coal mine in Europe. “We like to look after the owners and always give them a drink and I haven’t heard many say they didn’t enjoy Ffos Las,” said Walters. “I treat people like I’d like to be treated at other tracks. Give them a drink and a sandwich. It’s our Welsh way.” Walters has runners stabled with many of the top trainers, including Oscar Whisky’s trainer Nicky Henderson, David Pipe, Paul Nicholls, Tim Vaughan and Nigel Twiston-Davies, but Oscar Whisky is clearly the apple of his eye, although he insisted: “I’ve never had a bet on Oscar in my life. You’ll never get a price on him anyway.”