15:15 Wetherby - Silviniaco Conti
"This won’t be easy as he has a 10lb penalty today, and I’m sure others in here have targeted this race more and will be fitter than us, but he is a three-time Grade 1 and King George winner and theclass horse of the race and hopefully that will see him through."
It's a busy Saturday for Paul Nicholls with runners at no less than four meetings, and here the Betfair Ambassador talks exclusively about his five chances at Ascot and Wetherby...
13:30 Wetherby - Solar Impulse
Rounded off last season with a good win at Chepstow and I was pleased with his chasing debut at Newton Abbot. Okay, he was beaten at odds-on in a three-runner race, but the outing would have done him the world of good in terms of fitness and experience. That would have been the first time that he had jumped a fence on grass. So while a mark of 135 is plenty high enough on the bare form of that second, I'd hope that he can progress and be competitive here.
13:45 Ascot - Keltus
Proved himself a decent juvenile hurdler last season but hopefully he will develop into a better chaser, and I was certainly encouraged by his second to Court Minstrel on his debut at Newton Abbot, where he jumped nicely. The winner is clearly a smart horse, following up at Cheltenham next time, and I think a mark of 131 is fair. And the step up in trip will suit him, too, as will the ground. Has a good chance.
14:20 Ascot - Ulck Du Lin
Has won over course and distance but that was in heavy ground and I think that he may just struggle today on this faster ground over this trip. But at least he came down the weights last season and has Sean taking 7lb off - and he had his palate cauterised in the summer, too - so you never know.
15:15 Wetherby - Silviniaco Conti
He is fit enough to do himself justice and he tends to go pretty well when fresh anyway, as he showed when winning this race two years ago. But, with bigger prizes ahead, he will obviously be better for the run and last year showed us that we want to be going into the Betfair Chase with an outing under our belt.
This won't be easy as he has a 10lb penalty today, and I'm sure others in here have targeted this race more and will be fitter than us, but he is a three-time Grade 1 and King George winner and the class horse of the race and hopefully that will see him through.
Even though he clearly enjoyed a very successful time of it, his runs at the back-end puzzled me a bit, and we did find that he was suffering from ulcers when we scoped him after Aintree. But, regardless, he is the one they have to worry about here. I suspect we will see a much fitter Taquin Du Seuil than we saw at Newton Abbot and he could the one for us to beat, though two or three in here will probably be fancying their chances against us first time up.
15:35 Asco - Black Thunder
Needed the run pretty badly on his reappearance at Newton Abbot and will strip a lot fitter today. But in my opinion I still feel that he is handicapped up to the hilt, and ideally he wouldn't want the ground to dry up too much more. You clearly can't write him off, as he is a very smart chaser on his day. but I suspect that he may need to come down in the weights and softer ground to be seen to better effect. Maybe in something like the Hennessy, but we will see.
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