Paul Nicholls has not saddled a Grade One winner since the Ascot Chase 12 months ago – his longest lean streak at the top level for 20 years – but Pic D’Orhy’s return to the same race on Saturday is an excellent chance for the 14-time champion trainer to add a confidence-boosting 148th Grade One win to his record ahead of next month’s festival at Cheltenham.
L’Homme Presse, the beaten favourite behind Pic D’Orhy last season, is back for another crack at Nicholls’s gelding but two-and-a-half miles is very much a minimum for Venetia Williams’s runner these days, a comment that also applies to Emmet Mullins’s Corbetts Cross, the winner of the three-and-three-quarter mile National Hunt Chase at Cheltenham last season.
Haydock 2.40 The versatile Beauport could well line up for the Grand National in less than two months’ time but he was within two lengths of the winner in the Grade One Long Walk Hurdle when reverting to the smaller obstacles before Christmas and has an obvious chance on that form dropping in grade.
Blue Lord, a Grade One winner in the 2022-23 season, is an interesting runner for Willie Mullins as he prepares for his annual assault on the spring festivals, but his more recent form is less than convincing and Pic D’Orhy is a rock-solid 7-4 shot to get his stable back into the Grade One habit.
Ascot 1.50 Jingko Blue and Lowry’s Bar, the first two home in last month’s Hampton Novice Chase at Windsor dominate the betting for the Reynoldstown but Peaky Boy ran to a similar level when third at Cheltenham in December and is an eye-catching price at around 8-1 after a switch to Jonjo and AJ O’Neill.
