I was delighted to ride the winner of the big race at Aintree, the Old Roan Chase, last weekend.

It was the first time I’d sat on Third Intention but I knew him well enough from riding against him and, as I said in last week’s column, he would be ready to take advantage if one or two of his rivals didn’t run up to their best.

He had dropped down to a nice handicap mark, and the Tizzards, who are in cracking form, had him right for the day. The Hennessy has been mentioned as the next target and those are the type of races he’ll have to run in now, but he very rarely lets you down and you wouldn’t be surprised if he picked up another decent prize before the season is out.

His trainer Colin Tizzard can look forward to an exciting season with Thistlecrack following his easy win on his chasing debut. Everyone expected him to win like that, but it’s obviously reassuring to actually see it happen. He was also very clever over his fences and it will be interesting to see what his next test is.

Otherwise, for me, it’s been a frustrating week. I didn’t overly fancy any of my rides at Cheltenham, so to have four seconds shows how well they all ran, but it was obviously frustrating that one of them didn’t go one better.

I’m more hopeful going into today at Ascot. I’ve got six rides and Crimson Ark and The Tailgater could be the picks.

Crimson Ark has his first run over fences under Rules in the Ascot Underwriting Chase. He won a point-to-point in Ireland which will stand him in good stead and I’m sure he will have been well schooled by Emma Lavelle. He’s had a cracking start to the season, with a nice win at Fontwell and then a close second in a Grade 3 at Chepstow. I’m really looking forward to riding him.

The Tailgater, who runs in the Gardiner & Theobald Novices’ Hurdle, ran really well to finish third at Southwell last time on what was his first run since June. He will come on for that and can figure in what looks a winnable race.

Of my others, Buckhorn Timothy runs in the big race on the card, the Sodexho Gold Cup Handicap Chase. I don’t know too much about him, having only ridden him once, but showed he was in great nick earlier this month, only going down by a length in a valuable handicap chase. The Tizzards have had five winners from his last eight runners, so he looks a nice each-way proposition.

My Manekineko is a hold-up horse so the lack of pace counted against him at Chepstow last time. He still stayed on well and a strong pace in the William Hill Handicap Hurdle will help his chance, while Festive Affair is another off bottom-weight in the Byrne Group Handicap Chase. He’s very straightforward horse and is another with a place chance.

Aidan is sponsored by Racing UK - the home of the Jumps season. Watch nearly 2,000 live races from the UK’s best Jumps courses. Visit racinguk.com/join now