Tom George believes Baby Mix can enhance his Triumph Hurdle claims on Cheltenham Festival Trials day

“The way Saturday’s race is looking,” said George, “there will be a complete reshuffle in the Triumph betting afterwards, one will be halved in price and the others will be doubled!

“Baby Mix wasn’t far off Listed class when running on the Flat and was working and schooling well and showing us all the right signs before he ran [in December]. In fact his jumping was so good that we schooled him over fences a few times to make him realise it’s not quite so easy.

“Hopefully, he won’t need another run before the Triumph after Saturday. He has had plenty of experience on the Flat and we took the view that he ran well fresh in December. He’s where we want him at the moment.”

George is assembling a good little team for the Cheltenham Festival in March. The progressive Sivola de Sivola, a comfortable winner at Newbury last time, will be one of his more fancied runners when he lines up for the Pertemps Final and hopes in the yard will be similarly high for Olofi in the County Hurdle. He is much improved this season and was travelling really well when falling two out in a hot race at Newbury recently.

My Inheritance has shown a lot of speed and is unbeaten in two bumpers. He will take his chance in the Festival Bumper.

George will also be hoping that Module shows enough when he makes his British debut in Saturday’s concluding two-mile handicap hurdle to warrant inclusion in the team for March.

“We ran him in two £60,000 races at Auteuil and he was the only horse we had which wasn’t placed, but he was a bit unlucky both times.

“The first time he jinked at the last and the next time he was brought down at the last when he would probably have been second to Ozamo, the highest-rated four-year-old in France so he was very unlucky not to bring some money back. He’s a nice horse.”

Trainer Alan King sticking to tried and tested formula as he aims for victory at Triumph Hurdle

Even in a changing world, the fundamentals remain the same, and the good trainer uses judgment based on experience to keep getting results.

Take Alan King as an example. King, who boasts an extensive owner base that is the envy of the jumping game, knows what is required to win the Triumph Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival in March. He has already saddled two winners of the four-year-old hurdling championship, so is fully qualified to offer an informed opinion on the subject.

When King announced at Taunton last Friday that he felt he had a particularly strong hand in the four-year-old ranks this year, it was the signal to sit up and take notice. Grumeti - who came off the Flat from Michael Bell’s yard - had hacked up against older opposition at the West Country track to attract a quote of 14-1 for the Triumph, while the next day Vendor worked hard for a determined win at Newbury and was priced up at 25-1 generally.

Then on Monday, in front of a holiday crowd of 3,000 at Plumpton, it was the turn of the French import Balder Succes to post another four-year-old victory for the Barbury Castle trainer. The gelding, who had won his only previous start, at Auteuil in October, drew clear to win by eight lengths at odds of 4-9.

The victory certainly added weight to King’s theory that he has a strong bunch of four year-olds, but the trainer was not committing Balder Succes to any target just yet. “He’s a very likeable horse, but I don’t think he’s a Triumph Hurdle horse. He didn’t run on the Flat, and he may not have enough experience for that type of race,” he explained. Again, King had pitted the four year-old against older opposition.

Assessing his strong hand at the moment, King added: “Grumeti is likely to run again at Cheltenham at the end of the month, while I think Vendor is very good, as well. He’s got a lot of scope.”

As mentioned above, trainers’ habits die hard. King, who won the Plumpton/Cheltenham bonus with Voy Por Ustedes six years ago - the bonus is now £60,000 - is trying to repeat that feat with Kumbeshwar, who romped home by 16 lengths in a novice chase at the Sussex track on Monday. The bonus is paid to any horse who wins a chase at Plumpton before going on to win at the Cheltenham Festival in the same season. In other news, King believes Invictus had a valid excuse for his defeat in the Dipper Novices’ Chase at Cheltenham on Sunday.

The six year-old was never travelling with his usual fluency and it later transpired that he had lost a shoe.

“Invictus lost a shoe and was quite sore afterwards, and, while I hate making excuses, I am sure that he is better than that,” said King.

“He never travelled like he can and could not get into a rhythm.”