Chester Boodles May Meeting - Day Two

It is day two on the Roodee of the Boodles May Meeting up at Chester and they will have to go some to match day one. We saw two potential Classic winners yesterday in the shape of Arrest and Savethelastdance. Both were pretty impressive but Savethelastdance really took the eye. To me she looked as though she wasn’t loving the tight turns of the Roodee but despite that she waltzed clear to win by twenty-two lengths in the Listed Cheshire Oaks and took a quickstep straight to the head of the Oaks market.

I fancy a couple on Thursday and will hopefully have a little better luck than I did on Wednesday with a winner, second and third from my three bets.

Best bets for the horse racing at Chester - day two Boodles May Meeting

Racing is underway at 1.30 again but I am again leaving the opener well alone. The Listed 1m2f Boodles Dee Stakes sees some potentially nice colts lining-up at 2.40. Local Dynasty won three of his four starts at tw. The colt won in eye-catching style over 7f at Newmarket in August despite showing signs of greenness but was then slightly disappointing 12 days later in G.3 Acomb Stakes won by subsequent Dewhurst and 2,000 Guineas winner Chaldean at York. He won a mile Novice Stakes at Sandown on the soft before his last victory which was a Listed event over a mile at Pontefract on rain softened ground, beating Luckin Brew who was a non-runner in the Listed Cheshire Oaks on Wednesday. Charlie Appleby said of his charge on the Godolphin website “Local Dynasty has done well over the winter and we know that he will handle the ground following his wins at Sandown and Pontefract. Stepping up in trip looks as though it should suit and this seems a decent starting point for his campaign.” Interestingly, the only runner to be sent to the three-day meeting from Moulton Paddocks, having tipped him a couple of times last season and I am going to again today for this even though he has to give away 3lb. I am on at 4-1 overnight. San Antonio has to be feared bearing in mind connections and the fact he won a maiden at Dundalk on his three-year-old seasonal debut in March as he liked. That said he never troubled the judge in two runs at two on soft going. Alder is feared most. He progressed as a two-year-old ending his season finishing third in the G.2 Champions Juvenile Stakes at Leopardstown behind Auguste Rodin. He got off the mark on his three-year-old debut comfortably at Cork over 1m2f last month suggesting he has wintered well and Donnacha O’Brien will no doubt have picked up a pointer or two from dad Aidan about how to win this race!

Race of the day is the Group Three 1m5f tote.co.uk Bet 5 Get 20 Ormonde Stakes at 3.15. Hamish has a fair amount in hand on his rivals on official ratings but is drawn in stall seven of eight; that said it isn't a big field and he was two-wide for most of the race last year, three wide turning in, and still won! He has gone well fresh in the past so this being his first run of the season is of little concern; he started off his 2022 campaign with that victory here so it appears the Haggas team are going down a tried and tested path with him. He won’t mind anymore rain I am on at 15-8 overnight. Max Vega beat the selection by a head at Newbury over 1m4f last time they met but this track is very different from the wide open spaces of Newbury and the track and trip form very much swings the pendulum back in the favour of the jolly for me. Changingoftheguard has form here over shorter, won the G,3 Chester Vase last year and is very much feared over from Ballydoyle. I noted Ryan Moore saying in his blog “We never saw him after Royal Ascot as he picked up an injury but we are obviously very happy with him now, or else we wouldn't be here. Hopefully he can get a Group 1 on his CV this season. It's a deep and tough race for a Group 3, but this is a good starting point for him.” I think those last few words are key, it’s a starting point for the four-year-old with targets later in the season and he may just need the run after eleven months out of action.

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