D’oudairies to bring more Irish joy in Ascot Chase
CONDITIONS are set to be testing at Ascot tomorrow for the Grade One Betfair Ascot Chase (3.38pm) after a week of wind and rain with the promise of more to come.
That will be music to the ears of last year’s winner Dashel Drasher who wouldn’t mind conditions worsening further still.
He was nutted on the line at Lingfield last month by Two For Gold on heavy ground and may be slightly over-priced at around 6/1 in defence of his crown.
However, I’m keen on the chances of Irish raider FAKIR D’OUDAIRIES to get his season back on track here at 11/4 with Fitzdares.
He was really impressive on his seasonal reappearance at Clonmel last November but has bumped into Allaho on both starts since.
When you also consider he made two shuddering first fence mistakes in both of those last two starts, he actually did well to finish as close to Willie Mullins’ stable star as he did.
This trip looks ideal for him and he seems very versatile when it comes to ground conditions.
Saint Calvados deserves to be favourite on the back of his King George run and is another who will be fine on the ground.
Slight doubts remain over the form of the Paul Nicholls camp though and he looks opposable at the prices.
A bigger threat could easily come from the Venetia Williams camp who saddle Fanion D’Estruval.
Barely a weekend goes by without them landing a big pot and the seven-year-old ran well here last time.
This requires a big step up though and Fakir D’oudairies should have too much class for them if his jumping holds out.
Looking at the rest of the card and Fiddlerontheroof looks the one to beat in the Swinley Chase (2.25pm) as he builds towards a tilt at the Grand National.
He’s pretty short at around 2/1 and has to give a fair bit of weight away to the lightly-raced Ask Me Early which won’t be easy.
A more interesting betting proposition looks to be the Dingley’s Promise Handicap Hurdle (3.00pm) with a field of 13 runners set to take their chance.
Good Risk At All will be a warm order on the back of three seconds this campaign.
One of those runs came behind Jonbon back in November and this time last year he was beating I Like To Move It who ran so well in the Betfair Hurdle last weekend.
He’ll take some beating if he sees out this extra trip but there may just be a small bit of value in taking him on with Toby Lawes’ ZACONY REBEL off the same mark.
The lightly-raced seven year old bolted up in soft ground at Ludlow last time and looks to be crying out for a step up in trip.
At around the 6/1 mark he looks the most likely to give the favourite something to think about.
With the Cheltenham Festival now under a month away, the team at Fitzdares have been busy finalising their plans for the best four days in the racing calendar.
As well as hosting at the Fitzdares Club in Mayfair and their new Club in the Cotswolds, they also announced this week that they will have a pop-up club in the Orchard on track as well as hosting guests to stay at the Fitzdares Castle in Herefordshire.
POINTERS
Zacony Rebel e/w 3.00pm Ascot
Fakir D’oudairies 3.38pm Ascot