Michael - Chester 5.05 -: An all age Handicap over 7 Furlongs to close proceedings on day 1 and the fact that we have more soft ground form to go on than the previous "same age" races and that we can anticipate that by now conditions will be soft to heavy on a track where most of the runners are seeking the same parts of the Course may give us a big advantage in deciphering Draw and Going puzzles.

 

A few seem to run best fresh including Air Raid,My Amigo and Calder Prince, and all of those 3 have had wind operations or tinkering of some kind; Gin In The Inn (SP2A tip last time) runs well here and is well drawn and Penwortham is always worth close look here for Fahey and Koukash.

 

However it is the other Koukash runner I am most interested in; the Ian Williams trained HUMBLE GRATITUDE. Williams has a long association with the Owner but that is not the only reason he seems to have a good record here as in the past he has had notable success with other Owners horses and David Egan is one of those pilots who seem to have a natural and tactical feel for the place. The Going is a niggle, but you can say that for most of these and if the Yard are not sure they will likely withdraw the horse so we lose nothing. There is plenty of soft ground form in the breeding and it may just be the case that the horse has not avoided soft, more not encountered it.