It is a sumptuous afternoon here at Chester, and a near-capacity crowd is converging on the Roodee for the most popular day of the week. I cannot recommend it enough as a track – and a city – to visit, and it is even possible to watch all the action for free, from the Roman walls alongside the home stretch. Good afternoon from Chester on the final day of the track’s May meeting, when after two days of stepping stones to Epsom’s Classics and the Royal meeting at Ascot, the big race is all about backing a winner at decent odds in the here and now. The Chester Cup is a race for the punters, pure and simple, and they have been cramming onto the Roodee in the hope of returning home with a lot more money in their pockets ever since Doge Of Venice took the first running all the way back in 1824 (barely a quarter of a century after the abdication of the last actual Doge of Venice in 1797). It is, when all’s said and done, just a handicap. But like the Grand National over jumps, the fact that the Chester Cup is a handicap also means that it is not a race that can be won simply by throwing enough money at it. It adds to the fascination. You could hatch a plot to get a horse into this race with a handicap mark a stone short of its true ability, and it could still be frustrated by the draw or bad luck in running as the field makes two circuits of Britain’s tightest track. Aidan O’Brien won the Chester Vase for the 11th time on Wednesday, and picked up a 12th Dee Stakes yesterday. But in its 201-year history, no trainer – or jockey – has ever won the Chester Cup more than four times, and it took the super-shrewd Barry Hills nearly 30 years to get those wins with Arapahos (1980), Rainbow High (1999 & 2001) and Daraahem (2009). The Chester Cup is due off at 3.05, and the card’s main supporting race, the 10-furlong Huxley Stakes – the only Group Two event at the three-day meeting – is at 2.35. The sun is out at Chester, the going is good and we’re under way at 1.30.
Author: Greg Wood at Chester