BADBER BEERS HANDICAP CHASE
Saturday 11th November, 2:25pm
Threeunderthrufive @ 10/3
Frodon @ 7/2
The Big Breakaway @ 6/1
Sam Brown @ 17/2
Certainly Red @ 10/1
Blackjack Magic @ 10/1
view odds
*prices correct at time of writing.
RACE
In an age when racecourses know only too well that good, non-betting industry sponsors don’t grow on trees, Wincanton is understandably proud to be hosting the £70,000 Badger Beer Handicap Chase for the 62nd time, making the locally-based independent brewer Hall and Woodhouse – which has a badger on its logo – racing’s longest standing race supporter.
The combination of champion trainer Paul Nicholls and jockey Bryony Frost has most often been the post-race toast in recent years, and the pair will be looking to again win with the popular and talented veteran Frodon (2-25), in what will be the horse’s final season before retirement.
MARKET
Frost has won 11 races on Frodon, a total that includes the Ryanair Chase at Cheltenham, the King George at Kempton and Down Royal’s Champion Chase as well as this twelve months ago, and he lines up off the same weight level as 2022, however underfoot conditions will be much softer.
The Nicholls team, which has won this race (staged barely eight miles from home) eleven times, also saddles Threeunderthrufive, a horse which showed stamina aplenty when most recently fourth in the Scottish Grand National. Three of Nicholls’ human proteges – one-time stable jockey Joe Tizzard, former assistant Dan Skelton and ex-conditional rider Anthony Honeyball – all hold decent hands against their mentor: the Tizzard stable is in flying form, and the lightly-raced The Big Breakaway showed that he’s a potent force on his day when not beaten far (conceding an enormous amount of weight) in the Welsh Grand National last Christmas; for the Skeltons, Ashtown Lad impressed in the Becher Chase this time last year but later disappointed in the Topham, back over the big fences; Honeyball’s runners include the eight-year-old Blackjack Magic which finished last season on a high and has progressive written all over him. Meanwhile, Certainly Red’s form at Wincanton is 1-2-1-1 although his handicap mark has climbed.
CORNELIUS’ QUARTET
On Wincanton’s undercard, Knappers Hill, the Nicholls-trained hotpot for the Boodles Rising Star Novices Chase (1-50), faces a couple of intriguing, hardly-raced opponents in Doyen Star and Givega, both chasing debutantes but both also point-to-point winners; there’s a heavyweight battle in the storm-delayed Champion Chase at Down Royal (2-20) with the hugely exciting Gerri Colombe taking on more experienced rivals as he sets off towards the Cheltenham Gold Cup for which Fitzdares has him as 6/1 second favourite.
At Aintree, some big-fence regulars line up in the Grand Sefton (2-45), including last year’s 2nd and 3rd Gesskille and Percussion and (in the same ownership as Percussion) Magnificent Lady, the Topham runner-up; in the rearranged November Handicap on the Tapeta track at Newcastle (3-45), some big stables look for a last hurrah before the all-weather-only circuit takes over including in-form Charlie Appleby with the fresh and unexposed Local Dynasty.
For all your bets on the racing, visit our dedicated horse racing betting page.
