NEWBURY stages another interesting card of Cheltenham trials and big handicaps this weekend.  The three feature races include Denman’s last prep-race before his D-Day match with Kauto Star in the Gold Cup, last year’s Champion Chase winner, Voy Por Ustedes, blowing away the cobwebs for a repeat effort and a valuable and ultra-competitive handicap hurdle.  So this week my selections will be at Wolverhampton and Warwick.  The feature on the Warwick card is the Grade Two Systems By Design Kingmaker Novices' Chase.  Champion trainer Paul Nicholls seems to have every good horse going at the moment and could well land this event with French-import Big Buck’s.  A Grade Two winner over hurdles in France, he’s shown useful form to win two of his three races since coming to Britain.  He suffered his one reverse when second to a horse he allowed an easy lead to and failed to peg him back by half a length.  Provided this doesn’t happen again he’s likely to be successful here.  The last race on Wolverhampton’s night card features a seemingly well-handicapped individual in Basalt.  The son of Rock of Gibraltar bolted up on his first start for Tim Pitt at Southwell recently.  The winning distance of nine lengths from a poor field may have been exaggerated by Southwell’s unforgiving surface, but in an equally poor field he can make it a quick-fire double.

Selections – 2.25 Warwick, 2 Big Buck’s