Cheltenham Festival: Paul Nicholls stable tour

Paul Nicholls is keen to let Bravemansgame do the talking as the star novice chaser prepares to lead Team Ditcheat's challenge at this year’s Cheltenham Festival.

It was after the seven-year-old romped home in the 2020 Challow Novices’ Hurdle that the 12-times champion trainer first mentioned the £370,000 purchase in the same breath as the great Denman – and the comparisons are obvious.

Like the 2008 Gold Cup hero Bravemansgame had to make do with minor honours on his first visit to the Festival in last year’s Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle, finishing third behind the impressive Bob Olinger.

And in a fortnight’s time he will now bid to emulate the one-time Nicholls star by landing the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase (formerly the RSA).

"When I first compared him to Denman, he’d just won the Challow, as Denman had," Nicholls said during a press morning at his yard on Thursday.

"He’s rated higher now than Denman was after he won the Brown Advisory. There’s a lot of similarities in terms of what they’ve done, but you can’t compare generations really.

"He can only beaten what’s put in front of him. It doesn’t mean that one is better than the other, but he’s certainly gone the right way anyway.

"Denman probably never had as much boot as this horse. He was an out-and-out galloper and stayer, whereas this horse has plenty of speed.

"He’s just a lovely horse who has that class. We don’t need to make comparisons with anything else, we’ll see what the future brings."

Bravemansgame has been foot-perfect in winning each of his four starts over fences to date, most recently giving away lumps of weight in a handicap at Newbury.

His potential rivals at Cheltenham include Lucinda Russell’s Ahoy Senor, whom he readily swept aside at Kempton over