Those charged with framing the weights for the handicaps at the Cheltenham Festival fear the unusual circumstances of this jumps season have made their jobs harder than ever.
With the ground having been testing for most of the season, a number of horses have been allotted their weights on the basis of form that may be irrelevant when the horse encounters a quicker surface at the Festival.
Phil Smith, the British Horseracing Authority's head of handicapping who revealed the weights for the Festival handicaps, is also wary of the novices lining up this year.
"Novices don't usually have a great record in the handicaps but it could be different this year. It is hard to assess the strength of their form as a cohort, as many of them haven't run outside of novice company," he said.
Bellvano, Pepe Simo, Tito Bustillo and Salden Licht could all make their handicap debuts in the County Hurdle, while Sarando and Quantitativeeasing are possible starters in the Coral Cup.
"You can only rate a horse on the basis of the best form he has achieved and I've assessed Quantitativeeasing on 139 on the basis of his second to Phidippides at Kempton, but with nothing in that race having run in a handicap before or since, there is an obvious element of guesswork involved," said the BHA handicapper Martin Greenwood.
