Yesterday's selection Athollblair boy romped home by just under a length at Newcastle for Nigel Tinkler under a good ride from Lewis Edmunds. As expected there was plenty of money around for the five-year-old before the race and after being recommended at 2/1 in the morning he went off at 11/8.
There's plenty of racing on offer today with all-weather meetings from Southwell and Chelmsford as well as jumps action from Sedgefield, Huntingdon and over in Ireland from Thurles. There's also some cracking flat racing from Meydan where there are three group races with Charlie Appleby's Bay Of Poets the 5/2 favourite for the feature race of the day worth £111,000.
Closer to home the 16:05 Mares Chase at Huntingdon see's six go to post in a listed contest over 2m4f and I'm fancying Paul Nicholls' ANTARTICA DE THAIX to follow up his success in this same race last year with another victory.
This son of Presenting took to chasing well last year winning three races on the bounce with the latest of those being this race just under twelve months ago. He was rated 134 that day and produced a sublime round of jumping to beat another of today's runners Desert Queen by nine lengths. That bit of form looks solid and should stand him in good stead for this afternoon's renewal.
Delving into the form we can see that Antartica De Thaix has raced over today's distance of 2m4f five times in her career. From those five runs she has won twice, once been second and was a faller in the other two. This distance really does look his perfect trip and with further victories coming over 2m3f and 2m4 1/2f. She was second when last seen at Leicester in January to Got away who also competes this afternoon, but with a 7lb swing in the weights. I'm confident that Antartica De Thaix can reverse that form and go very close.
The main danger in today's race looks to come from Dan Skelton's Rene's Girl who was a useful hurdler and most recently went on to claim a listed event at Doncaster. However, she is now rated 144 and I feel the 9/2 currently available on Antartica De Thaix is too big a price that I'm more than willing to take a chance on.
