The Flat is now in full swing, and we have another midweek meeting to look forward to with the Chester May Festival on our screens today.
We finished last week with a good day thanks to an 11/1 winner at Thirsk and, notably, the 4/1 winner of the 2000 Guineas, Ruling Court.
Let’s kick on, so here are today’s fancies on a tricky Chester card.
Chester May Festival Day 1 Selections
2:05 Chester – Kinetic Force @ 7/1 with William Hill (4 places) – 1pt EW
The five-furlong 0-88 handicap is a fun little race as just 4lbs separate the top weight and bottom weight. It’s almost like a standard Listed race!
So, you have to view the race slightly differently because it is such a tight handicap, and Kinetic Force is the pick.
The Land Force half-brother to Kings Lynn (Group 2 winner) and Collinsbay (Listed winner) is a speedy, speedy horse. He breaks out of the gates well and just guns it to the line.
I’m hopeful this will help him negate stall eight, especially with the useful Silvestre De Sousa onboard, and he ran some very good races against smart horses last season.
On his second start, he gave Mr Lightside (rated 102) a proper race at Redcar before running a fine race at Sandown in the Listed Dragon Stakes behind Aesterius (rated 109) and It Ain’t Two (rated 96). It’s a testing five furlongs at Sandown, and that showed late on.
I’m not too worried about his all-weather runs at the start of this year as he put them behind when bolting up at Bath in April with the tongue tie applied, and while this is Class 3 company and not a Class 5 race, he held himself well in good contests as a juvenile.
With four places available with William Hill, I’ll play him each-way.
4:45 Chester – Thunder Blue @ 8/1 with William Hill (4 places) – 1pt EW
Yes, it’s his first start of the season, but Thunder Blue looks rather interesting in this race.
He’s down to a mark of 88, which is the same rating he had when third to the runaway Jarraaf in the Shergar Cup last season over six furlongs. That race has had multiple form boosts from the winner, Venture Capital (2nd) and Aramram (4th).
The four-year-old by Blue Point also won at Wolverhampton off 85 last year, so his current rating shouldn’t be too much of an issue.
Although he is having his first start of the year, he ran a really creditable race on stable debut in the Palace Of Holyrood House Stakes over five furlongs last year, which offers hope that he can go well fresh.
He is drawn in stall one, he will like the quickening ground, and trying seven furlongs again is no issue at all. Connections flirted with this trip at Doncaster in September, but the ground came up soft, so he hasn’t had a true chance to show himself yet over this distance.
He was a pretty decent juvenile in 2023 as well, notably when running behind Jasour, Haatem, Lake Forest, and Iberian.
He looks like a good price to find out if he is raring to go.
