WITH Martin Pipe's horses in such terrific form it is impossible to ignore the claims of Liberman (2.10) for the valuable Pertemps Handicap Hurdle at Market Rasen.

The 14-times champion National Hunt trainer, who cleaned up at Cheltenham's weekend fixture by sending out seven winners, knows Liberman likes the Lincolnshire course, having previously despatched his horse to score over track and trip in September.

Although 54 days have elapsed since then, Pipe is clearly happy to give the selection plenty of time between his races, a policy which suits Liberman, who considering he is a former Cheltenham Festival winner has been let in with a ludicrously low weight for the £18,000 event. There is no disputing the fact that the tricky fences at the course often catch horses out, but in the case of Dads Lad (2.40) there shouldn't be any problems as he put in a faultless clear round to record a clear-cut triumph at the track in December 2003.

The current well-being of Dads Lad is also assured as he ran an absolute corker to chase home Jonjo O'Neill's useful stayer, Prokofiev, over a similar distance at Stratford at the end of last month.

Even though Dads Lad was made favourite to take that particular contest, it is still realistic to expect Suzy Smith's charge to be a little bit sharper for today's three-and-a-half-mile marathon, in which he will get every assistance from his regular rider, Colin Bolger.

Joe Tizzard doesn't get much of a look in at the Paul Nicholls' yard these days, with Ruby Walsh receiving the leg up on the majority of the stable's big guns.

Luckily for Tizzard, Walsh is currently frying much bigger fish in Ireland, allowing Joe to retain the ride aboard Wincanton-bound Patches (1.30), whom he steered to an effortless six-length success at the course in October.

Patches could not have got the job done more easily on that occasion, strongly suggesting he is a five-year-old to follow, starting with the Hamilton Litestat Novices' Hurdle at the west-country venue.

Sue Wilton's fortunes have taken a turn for the worst over the past couple of seasons, though there might be some light at the end of the tunnel courtesy of Revelino (2.50) in Hereford's Grandstand Caterers Novices' Handicap Hurdle.

Revelino could be accused of being something of a professional loser, having failed to get his head in front despite numerous opportunities during the previous three seasons. I'm not sure that Revelino is an out-and-out villain because he has actually picked up plenty of place money during that period. Maybe he's just been unfortunate in keep finding one too good, a point underlined last time out when despite lodging a lifetime best performance, he narrowly failed to nudge his way past Aldirous at Worcester.

* HARRY HOOLY had supporters of Janus (Colin Woods) jumping for joy at Hexham yesterday by landing a mouth-watering 7-1 nap for our top tipster.

* Winner Finder came up trumps with the Longshot selection Glacial Sunset at 14-1 at Kempton yesterday.

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