Thursday’s Chester Tips: Consistent four-year-old handicapped to secure second win

Unique tracks are generally considered marmite for punters - you either love them and have had great success there, or you hate them and won’t part with your money despite temptation.

Aintree’s Grand National course, Epsom, Laytown, Kentucky Downs and Los Alamitos all leap off the page when it comes to distinctive and individual racecourses. As does Chester - and that’s where the focus will be on Wednesday as we’re off to the Roodee for the second day of their May meeting.

The feature races are the Dee Stakes (2.40) - a trial for the Epsom Derby - and the Ormonde Stakes (3.15), which is used as a stepping stone for Coronation Cup hopefuls. Neither really catches my attention from a punting perspective, but they are certainly worth watching with future targets in mind. 

I will be having a play in three handicaps on the card, though, starting with the 5f contest for horses rated 0-105 that kicks off proceedings (1.30). 

The best starting point is Julie Camacho’s Look Out Louis, who won this race last year and has to be strongly considered after a spin around Lingfield that was surely used to get him cherry ripe for a return to the Roodee. He loves deep ground and is quick to get into stride from the gates, which is a big positive around here, but he’s drawn out in stall seven and now runs off 14lb higher than 12 months ago. 

I also have doubts about King’s Lynn, who will jump from gate eight and has failed to show his best form at this track in two previous attempts, so he’s readily overlooked. And, while George Boughey and Andrew Balding have good records at the track, Nymphadora and Navello will need to improve on their recent outings.

All that considered, I found it hard to get away from Dave Evans’ two-time course winner Lihou. This seven-year-old has an affinity for Chester and comes here race-fit after a prolific all-weather winter campaign. He’s gone up 12lb in the weights since January, but he has won off a mark of 85 in the past and should still have a race or two in him. Soft ground and a likely fast gallop provide the perfect conditions, so he has to go close from stall two.

The following Deepbridge Capital Handicap (2.05) features a group of young and improving three-year-olds and is pretty hard to predict as a result. 

Balding’s Vetiver heads the market as she drops in trip after winning over 1m½f at Beverley. She’s a keen-going type, so the likely fast gallop might help her settle, but a flatter track may be preferable and I’m also not convinced that her mark of 90 leaves a lot of wiggle room (her best RPR to date is 89 and she hasn’t wowed me visually).

I believe John and Thady Gosden’s Theoryofeverything, a son of Frankel, should head the market on the back of his Greenham Stakes third. He’s been awarded an opening mark of 94 and could be completely underestimated with further improvement likely. Perhaps there’s a slight overreaction in the market due to his poor draw in stall nine. 

He was last off my shortlist but I can’t justify backing him over Lord Uhtred, who shouldn’t be anywhere near as big as 7/1. This scopey individual ran well in a couple of sprints to kickstart his career before showcasing a nice change of gear to get off the mark in a Kempton novice in September.

Lord Uhtred’s only subsequent start came in a handicap at Newbury last month, where his draw eliminated any possible chance of success. He performed well given the track bias that day - he raced right on the stands’ side rail when the centre of the track was notably better - and an extra half a furlong will help his cause. Charlie Hills believes there’s plenty more to come this year and I’m willing to take a punt that we will see a huge jolt of improvement on Wednesday.

Finally, I’m pretty keen on the chances of City Streak in the TMT Group Handicap (3.45). Consistency is this horse’s memo as he’s finished in the top four in his last seven starts - a mixture of handicaps and novice events. Only one of those performances resulted in victory, but you can’t fault his tenacity or mentality and he’s certainly not handicapped to the hilt - he just seemed unlucky to bump into one or two better performers on a regular basis.  

One of his best efforts came when second over this course and distance in July. He kicked for home off the final bend and put distance between himself and the majority of the field, but he couldn’t hold off the extremely well-treated Cormier, who was making the most of an untouched flat rating that was 58lb lower than his hurdling mark at the time.

City Streak proved he handled the unique topography of Chester that day and further demonstrated his ability to handle tricky tracks when he took second behind the hat-trick-scoring Precisely at Goodwood four weeks later.

Balding decided to give him a break after that and he only returned 21 days ago, where he finished a close-up third in a really competitive handicap on the all-weather at Chelmsford. That run will have put him spot on for this return to turf and I love his claims under Oisin Murphy. Hopefully a second career success awaits.

Thursday’s Chester Tips

Lihou (1.30 Chester) @ 3.85
Lord Uhtred (2.05 Chester) @ 8.4
City Streak (3.45 Chester) @ 6.2