Chester Racecourse: preview and tips for Friday’s six-race evening card

The Flat season continues apace at the world’s oldest racecourse on Friday evening as Chester hosts a competitive six-race card.

Racing gets underway at 6.05pm with a novice stakes in class four before a seven furlong handicap in class five brings the action to a close at 8.55pm.

Read below to find out the latest Horse racing betting and tips from Chester’s card on Friday:

The opener (6.05) is one for the younger horses as nine two-year-old potential stars of the future hit the turf for the class four novice stakes. The Flying Seagull, for trainer Hugo Palmer, holds strong claims here under a penalty having bolted up over course and distance a fortnight ago and is backed to get a second victory on the spin. Brighton Boy, for trainer Andrew Balding, rates the main danger here off the back of a second at Salisbury.

Race two on the card (6.40) sees seven runners head to the start for the class four Nursery contest, again for the two-year-old’s. Megalithic, a hefty 220,000 guineas Wootton Bassett colt, has shown glimpses on two previous runs and a step into this company should be about an improvement from a second place finish in the Woodcote at Epsom. Moon Sniper, trained by William Muir and Chris Grassick, rates the main danger back in calmer waters here after finishing 11th in the Chesham Stakes at Royal Ascot last time out.

Six runners will tackle the class four handicap at 7.15 which marks race three on the Chester card. Preference here is for Dickieburd, a previous course winner and was a runner up at this track on June 15. He gets the nod over Danger Alert, who looked a promising prospect at Windsor when finishing fourth last time out and has also been successful at Chester before.

Race four (7.50) is the feature race of the day as nine runners tackle the one mile and two furlong Chester Handicap, with a cool £15,288 up for grabs to the winner. Trainer Roger Varian sends the impressive So Deuce to Chester off the back of a wide-margin win at Leicester to get off the winning mark and rates a major player here stepping into handicap company for the first time. Last year’s winner Dream Harder is back for a second crack and can give Varian’s charge plenty to think about, arriving off the back of a fifth of 12 finish in a Chelmsford handicap last time out.

A class four handicap is the penultimate race of Friday’s meeting as seven runners take on seven furlong test at 8.25, with preference here for Native King after scoring in a course and distance handicap comfortably on his last run.

The card comes to a close at 8.55 with the class five handicap and a large field of 14 will be taking it on, with the nod going to Berkshire Phantom, a winner at Chester 28 days ago and is taken to go in again and defy a 2lb penalty in the weights.

Chester selections – Friday

6.05 – The Flying Seagull

6.40 – Megalithic

7.15 – Dickieburd

7.50 – So Deuce

8.25 – Native King

8.55 – Berkshire Phantom

[Photo: chester-races.com]