Cheltenham tipster Brian Toomey: Sire de Grugy to make light of Sprinter Sacre’s absence

Jamie has a lot to do with the training of this horse – he takes him off hacking in the woods near the Moore family’s stable on the outskirts of Brighton to keep Sire De Grugy fresh.

Jamie comes from an incredible family. His grandfather had horses, his Dad rode, his brother Ryan is the top Flat jockey. And that’s just for starters – his younger brother Joshua and sister Hayley also ride.

They took the horse for a racecourse gallop at Plumpton recently and Gary was bullish – that’s not like him. Without Sprinter Sacre, it’s not a great Queen Mother. I don’t think there is a danger to Sire De Grugy. As good things come, they don’t come better than this and it will show that small family-run stables can be as good as the usual suspects – Henderson, Nicholls, Mullins – if they have the horses.

In the opener, Red Sherlock will take all the beating. He’s very progressive, he keeps improving and he is one of David Pipe’s best chances this week.

My heart goes out to Jason Maguire who was kicked in the abdomen after a fall at Stratford on Monday. He’s had to have part of his liver removed. He would have ridden Donald McCain’s Corrin Wood in the RSA Chase, but Dickie Johnson is a like-for-like replacement. Dickie will get the best out of the horse, but that will be no consolation to Jason.

In the Coral Cup, I fancy Kaylif Aramis for Nigel and Sam Twiston-Davies. He had a wind op before winning at Ascot. I think there’s plenty of improvement still to come.

In the cross country race, Enda Bolger is a genius. He has a fantastic record and I’ve got a strong fancy for Quantitativeeasing. When trained by Nicky Henderson, he was good enough to be placed in the Paddy Power Gold Cup. He has the class you need to win a race like this and I think he will take to the varied obstacles.

In the Fred Winter, Gordon Elliott can win it for Ireland on Clarcam while my cousin Robbie McNamara is on Dermot Weld’s Silver Concorde who has a good each-way chance in the Bumper.

As I said yesterday, both Robbie and myself are cousins of JT McNamara who was seriously injured at this meeting a year ago and victory would mean the world to John Thomas and the whole family.

1.30: Red Sherlock

2.05: Corrin Wood

2.40: Kaylif Aramis

3.20: Sire De Grugy

4.00: Quantitativeeasing

4.40: Clarcam

5.15: Silver Concorde

Brian Toomey is backing Jack Berry House, the Injured Jockeys Fund Centre being built in Malton. Donations can be made via the injuredjockeys.co.uk website.