Chester May meeting: second day

with Goodwood and Newton Abbot both abandoned, Chester now stages the only racing in Britain this afternoon, but there is a strong card. However with heavy ground and lots of non-runners, caution is advised. Main event is the Chester Vase for 3yo´s over 1 1/2 miles at 15.35 CET, with only 5 runners, but none that can be easily discarded. We expect an Irish success, with either David Livingston (Aidan and Joseph O´Brien) or Call to Battle (John Oxx/ Johnny Murtagh) victorious. This is supposedly a Derby trial, but it will be a surprise if any of today´s runners make the frame at Epsom.

The Group Three Huxley Stakes for older horses over 1 1/4 miles is other big race and Godolphin have a strong hand here with Hunters Light (Frankie Dettori) and Prince Siegfried (Mikael Barzalona) engaged. Both are trained by Saeed bin Suroor and act on soft ground, but we assume that Frankie is riding the stable´s main hope. Questioning (John Gosden/ William Buick) is in good form, but may find this trip too far on the ground while Wigmore Hall (Michael Bell/Jamie Spencer) possibly needs better going.

The handicaps, despite small fields, look very tricky, but Richard Fahey has described Gabrial (Spencer) in the 16.05 as his best chance of themeeting, so we shall go along with that, while Andrew Balding and Jimmy Fortune have the top weights in Opera Gal at 14.35 and Intransigent at 17.15 and both should be thereabouts.