Moore and Ballydoyle’s big-race run to bulldoze Chester Vase
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Ryan Moore’s tenure as top jockey for Aidan O’Brien couldn’t have started better.
The pair have annexed the first two Classics of the season and the Chester Cup meeting only promises further rewards – as our day two NAP’s write up confirms.
It hasn’t paid to quibble with O’Brien at Chester in recent years with 11 of his 19 runners during the five years prior to 2015 having hit the bull’s-eye.
His ability to identify and ready likely Roodee scorers is clearly in good health if Diamondsandrubies’ Chester Oaks win on day one is any guide.
O’Brien has teamed up with man of the moment, Ryan Moore, to land three of the last four runnings of the Chester Vase and the fact that Hans Holbein is the only one of five Ballydoyle inmates still entered to run on Monday suggests yard confidence.
Others in the race, namely Future Empire and Tannaf may boast better form, but it’s worth placing your faith in the dynamic duo when they’re in this kind of form.
Sir Michael Stoute’s Cannock Chase is likely to be sent off favourite in this 1m2f dust-up for the Tradesman’s Cup, but the Bajan knight’s yard tend to hit form closer to Royal Ascot.
As such it could be worth opposing the jolly with Air Pilot, who has a wealth of direct and collateral form to speak well of his chances in this competitive heat.
Some 13 lengths ahead of Grandeur in a Listed 1m2f affair last November, that opponent had previously bested Chester foes Maverick Wave and Gabrial.
Mutakayyef, who finished one-and-a-half lengths behind Cannock Chase at Royal Ascot, was two-and-a-half lengths away in third.
Despite being six, Ralph Beckett’s gelding is almost as unexposed as his chief rival and rates an appealing alternative at double the price.
Karl Burke’s colt ran in Listed company last time out and that’s not something that can be said of his adversaries here.
He finished less than 3l adrift despite the next lowest-rated horse in the field (the re-opposing Carry On Deryck, whom he beat) being considered 6lbs his superior.
The three-year-old races off an identical mark here and boasts a jockey with the kind of Chester record that would make Franny Norton blush.
Martin Harley has struck on eight of his 26 runners here across the last five years – a strike rate of 36 per cent that improves to 40 per cent when only rides on three-year-olds are considered.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
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