The Dovecote is a top-class novice hurdle, which will be shown on ITV on Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, from a betting perspective, there were only seven declared runners on Thursday, which is likely to render it a non-betting race for me.

That said, the race includes some interesting prospects and has produced several top hurdlers in the past, including previous winners, Pigeon Island, Grumeti, Irving and Global Citizen.

The main winning trends I have used for this race, along with a few other minor trends, are listed below:

Interestingly, two of the entries at the forefront of the betting are ruled out on that basis, as they have not had a run within the last 42 days - namely, Hansard and Ukantango.

Second favourite Rubaud, from the Paul Nicholls' stable, disappointed last time in the Grade 3 Betfair Hurdle and has had two runs over hurdles at Kempton.
That trend rules him out along with not winning last time out, although I would expect him to improve on his previous run and the stable remains in very good form.
Effectively using all the trends, I was left with one horse, Imperial Bede, trained by Jonjo O'Neill and hopefully with his son Jonjo Junior booked to ride.

On official ratings, Imperial Bede has a lot to find with the two at the front of the betting, Hansard and Rubaud, with a ten pounds difference.

However, Imperial Bede does meet all of the following main trends from the list above:
Those seven ticked boxes combine into a strong positive and I would suggest an each way play on Imperial Bede if 6/1 or better, or an on-the-nose win bet if the best price drops below 6/1.