TRAINER Harry Fry is keeping his fingers crossed the prolific Unowhatimeanharry can raise his game this season ahead of his return to action in the bet365 Long Distance Hurdle at Newbury tomorrow.

The eight-year-old enjoyed a spectacular campaign last season, winning each of his five starts culminating with Cheltenham Festival glory in the Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle.

Leading owner JP McManus has since snapped up the much-improved staying hurdler and having missed the West Yorkshire Hurdle at Wetherby and last weekend's Fixed Brush Handicap Hurdle at Haydock on account of unsuitable ground, he is now ready to make his seasonal reappearance.

Fry said: "He had a great season last year and never stopped improving.

"He's going to have to improve again if he's to hold his own in the three-mile hurdle division this season, but he seems in good form at home and this will tell us exactly where we are with him.

"He's ready to start. We declared him last Saturday, but the ground was very heavy and he'd have had to carry top-weight, so we decided to wait for this.

"This race will probably tell us a bit more about where we stand."