Haydock Peter Marsh Chase Day – Copybet
It’s Peter Marsh Chase Day at Haydock on Saturday, seven races scheduled from the Merseyside venue, three of which will be shown live on ITV Racing.
The fixture, which gets underway at 12:15, has attracted some big names, including Nicky Henderson’s Old Park Star, a leading candidate for the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, and Royal Pagaille, who bids for an unprecedented third success in the feature.
Old Park Star – Haydock
Nicky Henderson has won the Grade 2 Rossington Main Novices’ Hurdle on six previous occasions and there’s every chance he’ll add to that courtesy of OLD PARK STAR.
The selection was with Paul Nicholls last year and showed a good level of ability on each of his three bumper runs for that handler, finishing placed at Sandown, Kempton and Chepstow. However, the six-year-old has looked a different animal since joining Henderson and switching to hurdles this season and travelled strongly throughout when accounting for a couple of subsequent winners at Kempton in November.
He was even more impressive when defying a penalty at Cheltenham in December, the son of Well Chosen running to a Racing Post Rating of 143 when pulling effortlessly clear of the 127-rated Glance At Midnight and the 125-rated Kingston Queen.
He’s reportedly been pleasing connections in his homework since and, although this clearly represents his toughest task to date, he’s open to plenty more improvement and should have something close to his optimum underfoot conditions.
Konfusion – Haydock
Sue Smith and Joel Parkinson have enjoyed plenty of high-profile successes already this season, including with the highly progressive KONFUSION, who holds strong claims in the feature Peter Marsh Handicap Chase.
The eight-year-old was rated just 92 when opening his account over fences in February last year and his improvement since then has been nothing short of remarkable, scoring off marks of 103, 115, 126 and 136, the last twice in Grade 3 company.
He’s up another 9lb to 145, but he’s been subject of an upbeat bulletin from his stable in recent days and has been given an entry in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, which although ambitious, makes him of major interest on Saturday in receipt of a stone from veteran, Royal Pagaille.
High Dancer – Haydock
HIGH DANCER has been a beaten favourite in his two runs since joining Nicky Richards this season, but he matched his career-best Racing Post Rating of 112 when second at Doncaster last time, and the prospect of a strong pace in this big field could well bring about further improvement.
The six-year-old has won just once from seven starts over hurdles, though encouragingly that success came in a maiden over this course-and-distance on his only previous appearance at this venue last March.
He’s been put up a pound to an official mark of 114 for his latest reversal, but he retains plenty of potential and Brian Hughes is riding at the top of his game at present.