Ripon preview: Chancery handicapped to strike

Chancery can take advantage of a drop in the weights to land the 1m 2f handicap on today’s seven-race card at Ripon (16.00).

The David O’Meara trained gelding made a winning return to action when scoring over course and distance, running on strongly to cosily beat Puzzle Time by 2 1/4 lengths of a length off a mark of 89.

Chancery backed that up with a solid seventh of 18 to Mahsoob in a class 2 contest at York off 95, and was also far from disgraced when third to Fire Fighting in a similar grade affair at Redcar.

The seven-year-old then failed to sparkle in his next three starts, but that resulted in the handicapper cutting him some slack and Chancery hinted that his time was near when putting an improved effort to finish a 1 1/4 length fourth in a class 2 contest over 1m 4f at this venue last time out.

It was a huge step back in the right direction, and Chancery is able to race in this lower grade class 3 affair off an unchanged mark of 90.

That is just 1lb higher than when last successful and gives the son of Street Cry major claims from a handicapping perspective.

The drop back down in trip will also suit, and another plus is that Chancery hails from a yard which does well with its runners at the venue.

In the 1m handicap (16.30), Gone With The Wind looks weighted to go well at a big price.

The gelding landed back-to-back contests at Lingfield and Kempton in the early part of last year when trained by Jeremy Noseda, with the last of those successes coming off a mark of 76.

Now in the care of Robin Bastiman, the four-year-old is able to race in this off a career-low rating of just 59 having shaped as if returning to form in his last two outings.

In the first of those, Gone With The Wind stayed on to finish a never nearer 4 1/2 lengths fifth of 8 to Rodrigo De Torres in a 7f contest at Musselburgh.

The son of Dutch Art then put in a similar display last time out over 7f at Newcastle when keeping on late to finish a three length fifth of 12 to Second Cut.

Those runs suggest Gone With The Wind is well worth a crack at this afternoon’s trip, and if the fitting of the tongue-tie for the first time has the desired effect a big run looks on the cards.

Selections:
14.00: Mfiftythreedotcom
14.30: Bint Kodiac
15.00: Goodknight Percy
15.30: Comicas
16.00: Chancery (NAP)
16.30: Gone With The Wind (NB)
17.00: Kathlatino