Best Odds Guaranteed Ascot Chase Day horse racing tips – Copybet
The Ascot Chase is this Saturday’s feature contest over jumps and Jonbon will attempt to win back-to-back Grade 1s at the track, but can he get the better of last year’s winner?
There’s also several competitive handicaps on the seven-race card as well as the Grade 2 Reynoldstown Chase.
Pic D’orhy – Ascot
Harry Cobden has a cracking booking of rides at Ascot on Saturday with the headline act being Pic D’orhy.
Ascot’s chase track is a real horses for courses venue and Pic D’orhy has five course wins to his name, including the last two renewals of this contest.
He wasn’t at his best at Ascot in November but may have still been feeling the effects of a heroic effort at Wetherby when only narrowly denied in the Charlie Hall, and this will have been his long-term target, unlike Jonbon who will surely be heading to Cheltenham in less than a month’s time.
There’s also a suspicion that 2m5f on soft ground at a stiff track like Ascot could put serious demands on Jonbon’s stamina who has won over 2m4f on soft but hasn’t really given the impression that he wants any further.
This is Pic D’orhy’s Gold Cup and he can make it three Ascot Chases on the spin.
Starzand – Ascot
The opener could be a good opportunity for Starzand to get his head back in front. The six-year-old lost his unbeaten record under rules when narrowly denied at Ffos Las on his penultimate start and probably found the race coming too soon at Leicester subsequently (just 12 days later).
However, the key for this race is his liking for slow ground compared to his main rivals in the betting. Both his Ffos Las hurdle success and point-to-point win came on soft and last month’s career best second was also in testing ground.
His main rivals, the likes of Mondoui’boy and Etna Bianco, have been showing their best on a quicker surface.
Starzand gives the impression that he’s still a work in progress and probably a chaser in the making, but given that he already sets a solid standard on form, there’s an argument to say he should be favourite for this.
Range – Ascot
Sam Thomas does well with the horses he sends to Ascot and he has a fascinating runner in the Class 2 Handicap Hurdle over the intermediate trip.
That runner is Range, who arrives on the back of a Sandown success, a race which looked like a good one for the grade.
That form is already starting to work out with the runner-up, Henri The Second, bolting up in the interim and a 2lb rise for that success looks like a lenient piece of handicapping.
A return to slower conditions won’t be an issue having previously won on heavy at Chepstow and if he continues on his upward trajectory, he looks capable of at least making the frame.