Lake View Lad to bounce back in Peter Marsh
| Published date | 19 January 2022 |
| Publication title | Weekender |
With connections of decent horses becoming ever more reluctant to run them more than a couple of times before Cheltenham, the pool of available horses for these extra races is just not that big.
Take this Saturday's Peter Marsh Chase at Haydock, for instance.
It's a race that has seen declining numbers in recent seasons anyway and had its first single-figure field for ten years when Royale Pagaille sauntered to success 12 months ago.
This year there are 17 five-day entries, but nine of those are also entered this weekend at Lingfield, a meeting that didn't exist a year ago (five in the Fleur De Lys Chase and four in the Surrey National).
With others in the race also holding an entry in the Sky Bet Chase at Doncaster next Saturday (it's doubtful any will run in both) it's fairly obvious we're looking at a small field and you can't blame the layers for pricing it up defensively, or offering just three places.
There's got to be some value though, and if you concentrate only on course specialists with the sole entry at Haydock the chances are you're going to be backing horses who are going to be much shorter on the day.
The obvious one for the Peter Marsh is favourite Royale Pagaille, who is only 7lb higher than for his 16-length romp 12 months ago and was far from disgraced when second to A Plus Tard in the Betfair Chase even though he was beaten 22 lengths on ground that would have been quick enough.
It's hard to be sure exactly what he achieved given nothing else ran to anything approaching its best form, but there's going to be a small field and he's going to keep some of the improvers out of the handicap because there's a weight range of just 20lb, so there's every chance he will start shorter than his current 4-1.
Empire Steel, seemingly going best when falling three out in the Rowland Meyrick at Wetherby over Christmas, would be only 2lb wrong, but he also has a Sky Bet Chase entry and would be running off his correct mark there.
I must admit to still being sorely tempted to have a bet on Enqarde despite the fact he will face a hugely more difficult task than the one he had when winning the Tommy Whittle last month by ten lengths from Remastered.
The handicapper has hit him with a 9lb rise for that, which is perfectly fair and not insurmountable, but he'll...
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