This race has been won in the last 3 years by Many Clouds (subsequent Hennessy and Grand National winner), Beat That (subsequent dual Grade 1 hurdler) and Arpege D’Alene who is a hopeful this year for the RSA Chase. All 3 winners were statistically going to better over fences being out of Cloudings, Milan and Dom Alco respectively. It could be that these Sires generally have stronger progeny at an earlier age and this course and distance requires a horse with stamina.

Looking at this years field:

He’s A Charmer by Mahler

He’s A Charmer has had 2 runs in bumpers so far including when 2nd to Cultivator (trained by Nicky Henderson) at Ascot but the lack of stats are not helpful in terms of whether this one will stay further in time, nor whether fences are what he will end up jumping. Cultivator always had his measure and Nicky Henderson should have a good idea about whether his horse can beat He’s A Charmer here. Despite an easy win, the field were relatively close behind and it might not have been the strongest event

Vivas by Davidoff

Vivas has had 3 runs in bumpers and although one was good at Fontwell, the race hasn’t worked out very well, in fact none of his bumper runs have worked out very well and again a lack of stats are not helpful, however what we do have doesn’t suggest further or fences in the future will help. He’ll need to improve over hurdles to get involved here.

Whats The Scoop by Presenting

Whats The Scoop is by Presenting who was the Dam Sire of Beat That who won this in 2013. He’s a half-brother to Harchibald who was a potentially unlucky Champion Hurdle runner up. Other Presenting Progeny have included Denman, Weapons Amnesty and No More Heroes who are all proven stayers. Nicky Henderson won this race in 2013 with Beat That who was owned by Mr Buckley who again owns Whats The Scoop and it would be no surprise to see this one go very close.

Krugermac by Kalanisi

Krugermac is based on odds the danger to Whats The Scoop after finishing 2nd in Ireland behind Nambour. 3rd has since won and 4th has come out and finished 2nd twice. Kalanisi progeny are expected to improve for further as well as when they go chasing and he should run well here. Ascot isn’t often a course that Gary Moore targets however and despite having had a run over Whats The Scoop it was 202 days ago.

With this in mind, it would appear the bookies have this race worked out with Whats The Scoop a 15/8 favourite however this could look very big if he is anything like Beat That or Harchibald. It is certainly a great race to watch and it will be interesting to see if the winner can go on to bigger and better things.