Topham Handicap Chase Betting Tips

Topham Handicap Chase Betting Tips

This, as ever, is a tough race to whittle down.

The Topham, run over the Grand National fences, is staged over 2 miles and 5 furlongs. There is £84,000 up for grabs for the winner here and 30 of them have been declared to attempt to chase it down.

Getting 30 horses down to a shortlist of six wasn’t easy. While no outright favourite has won the race in the last ten years or so, many of the winners have come from the top 25% of the betting market so they aren’t impossible to find.

That stat, along with some regarding ratings and weight, have led us to this half-dozen: 

Main Contenders

Al Dancer

With Sam Thomas these days after spending time with Nigel Twiston-Davies, Al Dancer has been a great servant in the past.

That’s not to say his big handicap days are over. In fact, Al Dancer comes into this as the most recent Sefton winner over the course and distance.

Whether he can cope at age 10 with a rise in the weights is open to question, but naturally the form is spot-on having beaten top contender Gesskille.

Ashtown Lad

Will we yet see Ashtown Lad in a Grand National? He was fifth in the Scottish version last season while he beat Gesskille in the Becher Chase over these fences this term.

Ashtown Lad is a top stayer who has remained in form since the Becher. A second over hurdles at Warwick was followed by a third in the Rendlesham Hurdle at Haydock.

Now back over fences, he will be fit and yet refreshed for this task and it’s one we can back the Skeltons to have got him very well prepared for.

Gesskille

As a runner-up to two horses named above over the National fences, Gesskille was the most obvious horse to make this list.

Since then, he has been slightly underwhelming at Doncaster when 6th of nine but that was on unsuitably fast ground. He has also been freshened up since then which could prove to be crucial.

In the last year this horse has only taken in six chases. He won at both Kempton and Auteuil before his two runner-up efforts around here and he is rock-solid in the context of this race.

Unlike Ashtown Lad, there’s no question mark over whether he needs further than this race distance so he really is a top contender.

Phoenix Way

Phoenix Way represents top owner and recent Irish Grand National winner JP McManus. The ten-year-old is trained by Harry Fry and he comes into this having gone off favourite for the Swinley Chase at Ascot in February.

He was beaten that day but his form over the last year or so is holding up really well overall. Assuming conditions are in his favour, he could go really well at a nice price.

Quel Destin

It’s not easy to remember without looking it up that Quel Destin is only eight years old as it seems like he’s been around forever.

Bryony Frost is back in the saddle for Paul Nicholls here aboard a horse she won on at Lingfield back in February, something that may have played a part in the trainer’s thinking.

That win was over two miles and against only a couple of rivals, but Quel Destin stayed 2½ miles well last time out on soft ground when a close second in a novices’ Premier Handicap at Sandown and that’s something that gives him a tick in the plus column.

Upping The Anti

Henry De Bromhead and Rachael Blackmore team up with this one, a fact that will keep some money coming in for this horse regardless of form and ability.

That said, seven-year-old improver Upping The Anti does indeed have ability and decent form having run second in a Grade 3 novice race not so long ago.

He’ll handle the ground and he’ll stay, while he is also getting better. The key question with this horse is whether we believe he’s handicapped well enough off a mark of 142 and we’re not 100% certain either way.

Summary

A top, competitive handicap chase, this race still provides a big and lively betting market.

The prices, even if professional money comes, should hold out on both ASHTOWN LAD and GESSKILLE and they are taken against this field.

The advice then is to go Dutch and split your stakes between them. Both horses provide value, both are ideal for this event and either would supply us with a nice return should they be successful.


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