Ascot Chase Weekend

Ascot Chase Weekend

Really looking forward to the Ascot Chase this weekend and think it will be very informative for those heading to the festival. Many questions are being asked and hopefully come Saturday evening we will have some answers.

What Cue Card will we see? Will it be the old people’s favourite, or the laboured disappointing one we have seen this year. If it’s the latter I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the last time we see him on the racecourse. Now what about the young pretenders at the head of the market. Top Notch is the current ante post favourite at around 7/4, his form is decent but in my opinion he is incredibly short at those odds.  Could it be the Henderson factor cramping the prices, maybe so, but on the other hand he could prove me wrong and hose up. Coney Island came back impressively after a year of the track and his defeat of decent yardstick Adrien Du Pont by 9 lengths shows what potential there is. For me I would wait until after the race to have a solid opinion on him, I would like to see a second good race in a row from him after all those months off. Again he could prove to be a real chas,er going places and this adds to what the race delivers. The most interesting runner for me and the one I will be with is Waiting Patiently. I have been really impressed with him, no more so than last time out in a listed race at Kempton. He seemed to get better the longer the race went on, his jumping was electric gaining lengths out of his rivals over each fence. He stayed on strongly and won going away by 8 lengths. That was his second consecutive victory at listed level, and if you go back to January 2017 there is a grade 2 win over a certain Politologue. Frodon is a decent horse and will run his race but is clearly already held on previous form by the favourite.

I expect the winner to come from the first three in the market. I will be cheering on Waiting Patiently and I don’t think anyone would be too upset if Ruth Jefferson was leading him into the winners enclosure.

On the same card earlier in the day is the Reynoldstown Novices Chase. Although I like Ms Parfois and her form is definitely progressive she could be up against it this time. She deserves the step up to grade 2 level after back to back listed successes. Black Corton comes here in fine form too. Last time out reversing previous placings with Elegant Escape in the grade 1 Kauto Start Novice Chase on King George Day. Elegant Escape did the form no harm on Sunday winning a Graduation Chase by 13 lengths and now up there in the betting for the National Hunt Chase at the festival. Currently 11/8 may be a decent price for a previous graded winner and I will definitely be putting him in my lucky 15.

Happy punting.