Every year, the objective is the same for the Ten To Follow: to find as many bonus race winners as possible. Sometimes races change from season to season, but this year’s bonus events are the same as last time, giving players some consistency.

The showjumping season always focuses on the Cheltenham Festival and its preparations. So it doesn’t make sense to look too far beyond March and there are six bonus races before the new year. In theory, it should be easier to find winners at this stage than those who come later.

Gray dawn is the hot favorite for the first bonus race, the Betfair Chase at Haydock, and he simply has to be included. He was hugely impressive in their win over the Turners last season and promises to be even better during this campaign, especially on soft ground. He could also easily become a Gold Cup contender later in the season, just like the Banker.

It might be worth throwing a few into the mix for the Coral Gold Cup at Newbury as there are plenty of big handicap races after that for runners to compete in.

Dan Skelton can surely get more out of this Midnight Riverwho trained well under heavy weight during his seasonal reappearance at Wetherby. It is also worth including Kandoo Child for Paul Nicholls as the eight-year-old looks certain to improve over three miles this season.

The Tingle Creek at Sandown comes next and it’s hard to get away from the course specialist Jonbon. He is unbeaten in four starts at the track, all in first-grade company, and looks certain to be sent to the Esher track before Christmas. He will be hard to beat there.

The King George in Kempton is a golden opportunity for The French Eastwho won the Kauto Star over the same course and distance last season in a time 4.45 seconds faster than Hewick in the big itself, which equates to around 22 lengths. A reproduction of this should suffice.

The last British bonus race before the new year is the Coral Welsh Grand National and I just can’t get last year’s winner out of my head. Nassalam turned the race into a procession over his favorite proving ground and would have won under any weight, so he may be able to repeat that.

That brings us to six without Constitution Hill or any Irish-trained riders. I’m going to leave Constitution Hill aside as he doesn’t race often enough and will also miss two-time Gold Cup winner Galopin Des Champs. It would be remarkable if he won it all again.

I prefer newcomers so I’ll give Lossiemouth the vote as my two mile hurdler and stays with the pair of JP McManus owned Done to file And In our way of thinking in the Gold Cup.

This leaves some remaining space and a small dilemma. Is it worth installing Teahupoo in the hopes that he will dominate the remaining division again or should I look for a horse that will show up more often? Teahupoo only raced twice during last season’s competition.

This puts me off including Teahupoo, so let’s go with Arkle’s winner from last season. Gaelic warriorwho has a lot of talent and looks to be Willie Mullins’ first stringer for this season’s Champion Chase. He is also on board the King George and there would be his chance.

Graeme Rodway’s Ten to Watch

Done to file
Gray dawn
Gaelic warrior
The French East
In our way of thinking
Jonbon
Kandoo Child
Lossiemouth
Midnight River
Nassalam

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