The three-day Chester May Festival comes to a dramatic close on Friday, headlined by a typically competitive Chester Cup.
3.05 Chester – Blindedbythelights & Galileo Dame lock horns in feature
A field of 17 runners go to post for the feature race of the Chester May Meeting and it is headed by Blindedbythelights and Galileo Dame who lock horns for Sir Mark Prescott and Joseph O’Brien, respectively.
Blindedbythelights comes here off the back of a nice prep run at Kempton in March but has also finished second in the last four runs. The second at Kempton reads well and looks to have a favourable draw in stall 4.
Irish challenger Galileo Dame represents six Irish runners, three of which saddled by O’Brien, and he had a nice prep for this at Navan in March.
O’Brien also sends veteran stayer A Piece Of Heaven and Puturhandstogether, the latter drawn widest of all under Billy Loughnane.
Andrew Balding’s Berkshire Sundance was the Easter Plate winner last month and if he can transfer his top form from the all-weather to the turf, he will be bang there for top connections.
2.35 Chester – Derby hero Lambourn returns, taking on eight rivals
Derby hero Lambourn returns to Chester to take on eight rivals in the Group Two Huxley Stakes, which includes fellow Group One winner Bay City Roller.
Lambourn won the Chester Vase this time last year and went on to win very well at Epsom under a great front-running ride from Wayne Lordan.
His season petered off, but back down in trip today and back at a track he did well at last year, he deserves to be favourite.
Bay City Roller ended a memorable season for George Scott last year as he bolted up to win the Group One Grosser Allianz Preis von Bayern after some very good runs against some good sorts in France. He must give Lambourn 5lb here, though, for the Group One win and that could be costly.
4.10 Chester – O’Brien’s Kingstonian heads a competitive Plate field
Kingstonian heads a very competitive Chester Plate field on his debut for the Joseph O’Brien yard.
Having made the switch from Mrs John Harrington back in November, this gelding will look to hit the ground running here and comes to Chester still unexposed for a shrewd yard.
Tony Martin saddles Hamsiyann, last seen finishing well down the field at Aintree last month, under Oisin Murphy.
