Friday Racing Preview

[Wandering Eyes]

Chester’s May meeting wraps up on Friday before Lingfield’s Derby and Oaks Trial meeting the following day and the G2 Homeserve Huxley S. is the pattern-race feature alongside the prestigious Chester Cup H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum’s Apr. 19 Easter Classic winner Matterhorn (Ire) (Raven’s Pass) switches back to turf for the 10-furlong Huxley and this is the acid test as to whether the 4-year-old can have a fruitful summer off the all-weather. With the recent rain, there is a doubt about whether he can shine when the grass is wet. “I’m confident that he’ll act on turf, but whether he’ll act on what we’ll get on Friday is a completely different kettle of fish,” commented trainer Mark Johnston’s son Charlie. “Hopefully we’ll have a bit of fresh ground, which would be beneficial, but it doesn’t take a lot of rain to get quite testing at Chester.”

Matterhorn slammed Wissahickon (Tapit) in the Easter Classic, taking his tally to seven-from-nine on all three artificial surfaces available in Britain, Polytrack, Tapeta and Fibresand. “Given he’s shown such a high level of ability on the all-weather, translating that form to turf doesn’t worry me too much but translating it to testing ground after three busy days is not what we wanted,” the trainer’s assistant added. “This was the obvious race after the all-weather campaign, though, as a stepping stone to the big summer targets. It was this or the Brigadier Gerard and this is worth much more money. The horse is in phenomenal order and we’re just looking forward to getting him out again.”

Cheshire’s heavy precipitation has been welcomed by William Haggas, who finally gets to run Sheikh Ahmed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s Addeybb (Ire) (Pivotal {GB}) on the ground he needs and had when successful in last year’s G2 Sandown Mile. Withdrawn on several occasions subsequently, he had to resort to the Polytrack for an outing when third over this trip in the Listed Churchill S. in November.

“He’s been desperate to run for so long that I’m just running him,” he said. “I’m not sure this is the right race, although it doesn’t look the strongest renewal. He needs to get out, he is getting bored as he’s been on the go a long time so I hope he’s fresh enough and fit enough, especially over this trip–which I think he wants.”

After the marathon Sportpesa Chester Cup over an extended 18 furlongs, speedball Kachy (GB) (Kyllachy {GB}) is back for the five-furlong White Oak UK Conditions S. he dominated in scintillating fashion 12 months ago. En route to the Royal Ascot sprints, the star of the local Tom Dascombe yard should provide his many fans with another rock-and-roll performance around the “Roodeye”, while later in the evening Cork also stages a warm-up for the Royal meeting’s speed tests in the Listed Goffs Irish EBF Polonia S. in which last year’s G2 Queen Mary S. runner-up Gossamer Wings (Scat Daddy) makes her seasonal bow for Ballydoyle.

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