JAMIE Osborne's Passage To India has improved with racing and looks primed to strike in the southwell-racecourse.co.uk Nursery Handicap at the Nottinghamshire venue.

A filly by Indian Ridge, she finished sixth on her debut at Wolverhampton in October, returned to Dunstall Park to take fourth a couple of weeks later and stepped up on that again when a close third earlier this month.

The two-year-old is forced to shoulder a heavy burden for her first time outside of maiden company, but the old adage of backing top weights in a nursery often pays dividends.

Don Cantillon does very well with his small string in both codes and can score with La Estrella in the Hospitality At Southwell Racecourse Claiming Stakes.

The five-year-old arrives in good heart, having won his last two races in fine style.

He is the highest rated in the field by some distance - but admittedly cannot be totally relied upon to run to the same mark every time as he is competing in claiming company.

However, a reproduction of anything like his last two races will make him the one to beat.

The Blue Square Mobile Novices' Hurdle at Catterick looks an absolute penalty kick for Howard Johnson's Door Boy.

The five-year-old finished second to Diamond Harry last time out at Cheltenham in what was arguably the strongest novice hurdle so far this season.

Paul Nicholls recently stated he believed Diamond Harry to be the best novice hurdler seen anywhere so far.

The fact Door Boy was the only serious threat over the final two flights speaks volumes.

Johnson has plenty of these staying novice hurdlers this season and the time will come when he needs to sort out some sort of pecking order before the Festival in March.

It is sometimes best to steer clear of horses with a string of seconds next to their name but that is not the case with Any Currency, who lines up in the Countryside Alliance Family Day 2nd January Maiden Hurdle at Folkestone.

Martin Keighley's five-year-old ran a stormer in defeat latest, chasing home David Pipe's unbeaten Great Endeavour.

The winner was given a cute ride by Timmy Murphy that day but connections have pretty high hopes for him so it was no disgrace at all.

Any Currency is bound to be in the frame if he runs to a similar mark again.

SELECTIONS

CATTERICK: 12.30 Hernando Cortes, 1.00 Fine Parchment, 1.30 Door Boy, 2.00 Gidam Gidam, 2.30 Cave Hill, 3.00 I'm Your Man, 3.30 Vivona Hill.

FOLKESTONE: 12.50 Smoke And Mirrors, 1.20 Its A Dream, 1.50 The Slider, 2.20 Won More Night, 2.50 Salsero, 3.20 Any Currency.

SOUTHWELL 12.40 PASSAGE TO INDIA (NAP), 1.10 Island Chief, 1.40 La Estrella, 2.10 Simple Jim, 2.40 Vhujon, 3.10 Owed.

Double: Passage To India and La Estrella. Tweet