Chester Preview 30th August
Powells Jewellery Ladies Day
Racing returns to the Roodee on Saturday afternoon for a 7-race card that gets underway at 2:10 with what is perhaps the most interesting race of the day. The Powells Jewellery EBF Fillies Conditions Stakes has 5 runners going to post and with 4 of the 5 having already won a race, this could be a good race with an eye to the future. Concert was a winner at Yarmouth, but having hit the front she was slightly fortunate to hold on as both the 2nd and 3rd recorded faster run-out speeds as they closed her down. Coming Attraction was a 5-length winner at Chelmsford City last time and has certainly achieved more than Concert, but even with her profile, she may struggle to live with Blingy’s Sister. Hugo Palmer trained the winner of this race 12-months ago (It Ain’t Too) and there is every chance that this daughter of Starspangledbanner could be just as good. She was a winner on her debut at Chepstow and that form has already taken a boost when the runner-up went in at Brighton next time. Blingy’s Sister was the fastest finisher that day, running final furlong splits of 11.07 and 12.03s, over a second faster than anything else over the final quarter of a mile and galloping through the line with a run-out speed of 35.03 mph. She’s from the family of Richard Pankhurst and Lateen Sails and has a very precocious pedigree, which would suggest that she is the horse to be with at this stage of this fields careers.
The Virgin Bet Chester Stakes at 2:40 is the Listed feature race on the card and this should revolve around Tabletalk from the Tom Clover yard. With an official rating of 113, the handicapper thinks that he is the best horse in this race and even though he hasn’t managed to win since landing the Melrose handicap at York 12-months ago, there were signs from data of his latest start to suggest that he is returning to his best form. He finished 3rd behind Al Qareem in the John Smith’s Silver Cup at York in July, but having recorded the shortest stride in the field and ranked 3rd for top speed, he was perhaps beaten by the stamina test that 14-furlongs on the Knavesmire represents behind such a strong staying type. He was only 6-lengths behind Rebel’s Romance in the Hardwicke at Royal Ascot the time before, where he recorded the fastest run-out speed in the field at 33.84 mph and with the switch to a more speed based track, in what is the easiest race that he has contested for some time, this could be the race to be with him, especially with the cheek-pieces added for the first time. Tom Clover has a 31.6% strike rate when he decides to use this headgear for the first time with one of his horses, returning a profit of £57.88 to a £1 stake and if they bring out any improvement, Tabletalk will stamp his class on this field.
The Peter and Angela Wilson Handicap at 4:25 looks to be the other really interesting race on the card. Kinswoman recorded the fastest top speed (42.5 mph) and run-out speed (36.91 mph) when she won at Windsor last time, but that was a 4-runner race and it did take her 6 attempts to get off the mark. Even with a good draw in stall 1, I think she is opposable on her return to handicaps and the horse to take her on with looks to be Ziggy’s Triton. He has won 2 of his last 3 starts for David O’Meara and arrives here on the back of an all the way success at Musselburgh. At no point in that race did he manage to run the fastest individual furlong in the race, but he showed bright early speed, taking 6.4s to reach 30 mph (ranked 1st) and if he can break smartly from stall 3, he should get into a good rhythm and prove hard to pass as a result.