Chance Baby to defy absence

3.15 Aintree. Click here to bet.

Sprinter Sacre's absence from the BetVictor Tingle Creek has made the race a more competitive but less appealing prospect and Saturday's best action comes over the National fences at Aintree.

The feature is the Betfred Becher Handicap Chase and despite a long absence of 959 days, there is plenty to like about the chances of Nigel Twiston-Davies' BABY RUN.

Twiston-Davies has won the Becher Chase five times previously, including two of the last three renewals with Hello Bud, and this former winner of the Fox Hunters' over these unique fences looks overpriced.

His time off the track is obviously a worry, but on the plus side he's always gone extremely well fresh and his trainer is happy with his well being. Now 13, his advancing years are also of little concern in a race where experience counts for a lot (indeed, Hello Bud was 14 when he won it last year).

Another positive is his prominent style of racing and bold jumping, a combination that works well over the National fences given you tend to stay out of the trouble that can often be the scourge of a hold-up horse around here.

If the forecast rain comes it will be no concern to this fellow, his stable has just started to fire again in the last week and, all in all, 28/1 looks a very fair price indeed.

With 24 runners (I can't remember a more competitive Becher) I want another one onside and the one that appeals the most is Philip Hobbs' CHANCE DU ROY at 20s.

He looks a very well-handicapped horse given he's dropped 15lb to 135 in his last four races and though there is a reason for that, his spin around these fences in the Topham two starts ago wasn't too bad (ninth of 29).

That suggests that these fences can reignite his spark now he has dropped to his lowest mark since he won at Chepstow in January 2011 and this is a track he likes given he was runner-up to Always Waining in the 2012 Topham (off 148).

Originally posted here:
Chance Baby to defy absence