Top chasers go head-to-head in the Peterhouse Group Charlie Hall Chase at Wetherby this weekend
The jumps season steps up another gear at Wetherby on Saturday with the clash between Ireland’s Sackville, second favourite for the Gold Cup, Legal Right, Shotgun Willy, Lord Noelie and Beau in the Peterhouse Group Charlie Hall Chase.
Sackville won seven novice chases on the trot last season and will find this three miles one furlongmuch more to his liking than the two miles of his reappearance chase at Punchestown last month.
Jonjo O’Neill’s horses have been flying since his move from Cumbria to Jackdaws Castle in Gloucestershire during the summer and Legal Right, such a problem horse with intermittent lameness, could be the one here. That is if all four legs and his muscles are in tune!
Legal Right was only fit to run twice last season when he won the Tote Silver Cup at Ascot, hinting strongly that he would be a liveGold Cup prospect. His other run was a creditable third behind First Gold and Lord Noelie in the Martell Cup at Aintree.
Lord Noelie will prefer the drier conditions here, while Shotgun Willy, conqueror of First Gold in the Aon Chase at Newbury inFebruary, runs in preference to his stable companion See More Business, winner of the race for the last two years.
Boss Doyle, sent over from Ireland by Mouse Morris to take last year’s John Smith’s Hurdle, is on the same mission again, doubtless supported by his enthusiastic owners Anne and Vincent Daly, from Kilkenny. Lenny Lungo’s Crazy Horse will be one to watch against him.
Jonjo O’Neill’s Quazar, an emphatic winner at Cheltenham this week, is out to make it four-in-a-row in the Stanley Racing Juvenile Hurdle, while the stable’s Under Wraps could make it a day to remember for Jackdaws Castle in the Rocom Handicap Chase.
The curtain comes down on Newmarket’s 36-day season with the running of the Littlewoods Bet Direct Mile, whichprovides the disappointing Putra Pekan with a chance to turn round Cambridgeshire form with the winner I Cried For You.
John Dunlop’s Right Wing, who has already been successful twice at Newmarket this season, can make it three in the Ben MarshallStakes.
