Livescore Chester Handicap Temptation
Chester host a premier raceday card along with Sandown this Saturday.
The valuable Livescore handicap worth just short of £51,000 to the winner is the race we target. Hopefully, we can go one better following the excellent run by Kihavah in the Ebor handicap last weekend.
Two Tempting won two competitive handicaps at Epsom and Sandown in June. The handicapper raised him a total of 7lbs for both wins which is lenient to my eyes. He won well at Epsom on good to soft ground when holding off Beshtani over an extended mile. I was surprised that he won at Sandown where I thought the ground would prove too testing. He showed his class to quicken into the lead in the final furlong and hold off the finishers such as Dual Identity and Classic. That is cracking form with Dual Identity finishing second in a heritage handicap behind the same owners Sir Busker at York last Saturday.
Gorak will love the drying ground at Chester and racing around a bend. He is a quick horse that is best on summer ground. Last season he finished second here over 7f on soft ground during the Boodles May Festival. Gorak started this season with two good, placed runs at Newmarket over seven furlongs. He went close to winning the second of those runs only for the enigmatic Carrytheone to finish with a wet sail. Carrytheone has run well since that Newmarket run and gone up 9lbs in the handicap.
Gorak ran below par twice before showing a return to form with a third-place finish at Epsom on Monday. He has dropped a pound since Newmarket to 94 and looked to be crying out for a true run extended seven furlongs to a mile on Monday. He lost his position before staying on strongly to get within a length of the winner.
Chester 2:40
0.5 point each way Two Tempting 14/1 Bet365 else 12/1 Betvictor, both 5 places.
0.5 point each way Gorak 12/1 Bet365 5 places else 11/1 generally, 4 places.
Compare Odds at https://www.oddschecker.com/horse-racing
Best of Luck,
Nicky
Past Results
Click to see past Big Saturday Race Preview Tips results
Chester Racecourse, also known as the Roodee, is a racecourse located in Chester, England. The horse racing venue is officially recognised by Guinness World Records as the "oldest racecourse still in operation". Horse racing in Chester dates back to the early sixteenth century, with 1539 cited as the year racing began, although some sources give a date of 1512 for the first races in Chester. It is also thought to be the smallest racecourse of significance in England at 1 mile and 1 furlong (1.8 km) long.
History
The 65-acre (26-hectare) racecourse lies on the banks of the River Dee. The site was once a harbour during the Roman settlement of the city during the Early Middle Ages, sometimes referred to as the Dark Ages, but was closed as the river silted up thus making navigation impossible. Towards the centre of the in field is a raised mound which is decorated by a small cross known as a "rood". It is from this that the race course derives the name "Roodee"; Roodee is a corruption of "Rood Eye", meaning "The Island of the Cross", and is sometimes seen as "roody" in early sources.
According to legend the cross marks the burial site of a statue of the Virgin Mary sentenced to hang after causing the death of Lady Trawst, the wife of the Governor of Hawarden. The legend states that she had gone to church to pray for rain but when her prayers were answered by a tremendous thunderstorm the statue was loosened and fell, killing her. As a holy object, hanging or burning the statue would be sacrilege so the statue was left by the banks of the river and the tide carried it down to Chester. The statue was found guilty by a jury of 12 men. If the legend is true, then this is the first recorded case of a jury being used in a court.
In an alternate version of the legend, the statue was instead carried to St John's Church. An ancient statue of the Virgin was recorded at the time of the reformation but may not be the same one. The statue was thrown down as a relic of popery, used as a whipping post for scholars and burned.
Less fanciful is a report from 1840 that the stone obelisk is the base of a cross that marked the boundary of the Benedictine Nunnery, the nunnery having been created in the mid 12th century, and dissolved in January 1540. The cross was known as the Rood Dee (the Dee cross), to distinguish it from the cross at St. Peter's Church.
The site was formerly the home of the original Chester Midsummer Watch Parade, temporarily banned by Oliver Cromwell but finally abolished in 1677.
The east of the race course abuts directly onto Chester's ancient city walls which were once used to moor Roman trading vessels, before the course of the river changed. Spectators can watch races for free from the walls which offer a clear view of the whole circuit. The Grosvenor Bridge, at one time the longest single arch bridge in the world, passes over the south-eastern corner. The north of the course is bordered by a long railway bridge carrying the North Wales Coast Line (shared with the Shrewsbury–Chester line) over the River Dee. The course is overlooked from the opposite bank of the river by the mansions of Curzon Park, which can be seen dominating the skyline from any of the three grandstands. The Welsh border is roughly a mile west of the racecourse.
Livescore Bet Handicap Winners over past 10 years
|
Year
|
Winner [draw]
|
Age
|
WGT
|
SP
|
Trainer
|
Jockey
|
|
|
Master Zoffany [4]
|
5
|
8-10
|
10/1
|
||||
|
Percy's Lad [3]
|
4
|
9-8
|
20/1
|
||||
|
Fools Rush In [4]
|
3
|
8-8
|
10/1
|
||||
|
Oh This Is Us [6]
|
6
|
9-10
|
5/2F
|
||||
|
Oh This Is Us [9]
|
5
|
9-10
|
11/2
|
||||
|
Penwortham [6]
|
4
|
8-0
|
8/1
|
||||
|
Breakable [7]
|
5
|
8-13
|
11/2
|
||||
|
Sound Advice [6]
|
6
|
9-6
|
5/1J
|
||||
|
Ocean Tempest [3]
|
5
|
9-10
|
10/1
|
||||
|
Clockmaker [1]
|
7
|
8-11
|
8/1
|
Best of Luck,
Nicky