The feature race on the 2nd day of the Autumn Festival at Chester is the Listed Virgin Bet Stand Cup at 2:05 and this race looks to revolve around one of our favourite horses, Hamish. Already the winner of the Ormonde Stakes here in 2022 and 2023, William Haggas’ 9-year-old has won 13 of his 25 career starts and has amassed over £590,000 in prize money. We have only seen him once this season, but given the fact that he needs some cut in the ground that is not a surprise given the dry Summer that we have had. He won the Listed Tapster Stakes at Goodwood on soft ground in June, getting the better of Military Academy after running the fastest final 4 furlong splits in the field and on that evidence, he would look to hold the John and Thady Gosden trained horse. Military Academy was 7th on his next start, but that came in the Group 1 Goodwood Cup and it was probably a step too far to think that he could be competitive at that level. He has some very good form at Listed level and is a clear 2nd best, but given the way that Hamish finished the race at Goodwood and the fact that he has won 6 times in the past on the back of a break of more than 60-days, he should confirm the form.

The Virgin Bet Supports Safer Gambling Watergate Cup at 2:40 has a first prize of £51,540 and as a result it has attracted a full field. Sheradann got the better of Artisan Dancer when they met in the Racing League at Southwell at the end of August, but there are reasons to think that the form could be reversed when looking at the data from that race. On a night where it paid to race prominently, Sheradann was ideally placed at the front of the field and was able to get the first run on Artisan Dancer when Edward Greatrex sent him for home off the final turn with a 12.42s thirteenth furlong, the fastest in the field. That allowed him to get a lead over Artisan Dancer, despite the fact that the runner-up recorded faster times for the next 2 furlongs and had a longer peak average stride length with a better top speed. The runner-up ran well at York last week to confirm that form and even though Artisan Dancer has won 5 times on the All-Weather, he has shown enough form on the turf to think that he might get the better of Sheradann with a better draw. However, both of them may struggle to match the improving Irish raider, Tribal Star.