racing_news/

Peterborough Chase Moves to Newbury
14/12/10

The totesport.com Peterborough Chase has been saved and will be run at Newbury on Wednesday 15th December following Sunday's late abandonment at Huntingdon.

The Grade Two contest will form part of an eight-race card at the Berkshire track.

The first race is due off at 11.55am with the Peterborough scheduled for 3.10pm.

Original entries will be carried over and declarations must be made by 10.00am on Tuesday.

Peterborough Chase Preview
09/12/10

With racing almost certain to take place at Huntingdon on Sunday 13th December, racing fans will be able to get stuck into what promises to be a cracking renewal in the Grade 2 Peterborough Chase – rescheduled after racing was abandoned at the Cambridgeshire track on Thursday.

Twist Magic
© racing-images.co.uk

There has been added spice to the race with the almost certain inclusion of the Paul Nicholls trained, Twist Magic, who takes on the Peterborough in preference to the Tingle Creek, which is being run at Cheltenham this year, due to the poor weather. Nicholls is not convinced that his 8 year old produces his best at Cheltenham so has opted for Huntingdon, where he will encounter a very strong field.

There is no doubt that Twist Magic will be among the favourites on Sunday, but so will last year’s winner, Deep Purple, trained by Evan Williams. He looked full of promise when winning this last year, but many plaudits feel he flattered to deceive as he did little else for the rest of the season worth noting. However, in winning last year he had the excellent David Pipe trained chaser, Tartak in second, but more importantly he had 2010 Ryanair Chase winner, Albertas Run back in third with 2008 Arkle Trophy winner, Tidal Bay in fourth.

Deep Purple
© racing-images.co.uk

Deep Purple had in fact won the Grade 2, Charlie Hall Chase at Wetherby a few weeks before taking the ‘Peterborough’ last season and had also taken top prize in the Grade 2, Future Champion Novice’s Chase at Ayr on his last outing the season before. Unfortunately, he has failed to spark since and was trounced twice by Albertas Run in the Ryanair at Cheltenham and the Melling Chase at Aintree at the end of last season. Williams has obviously tried to set a similar course for him this season, but his third place behind Nacarat in the ‘Charlie Hall Chase’ renewal a few weeks ago, did not inspire much confidence.

Others who will come to Huntingdon with big chances are The Nightingale, also trained by Nicholls who looked a very good prospect when winning the Grade 2, Ladbroke, com Chase at Down Royal in early November. They think a lot of this seven year old at Ditcheat and are expecting him to run a very big race.

Kalahari King is also a likely starter, and should make big improvements after finishing third last time in a Limited Handicap at Kelso where he gave huge lumps of weight away to the rest of the field. It seemed quite odd to see a horse who was second in the 2009 Arkle Trophy and third in 2010 Champion Chase running in such low grade company, but his trainer, Ferdy Murphy is one of the best in the business and will have undoubtedly used that race to get him right for this.

The Peterborough Chase is the feature race of the year at Huntingdon and has been won by several top chasers, including the magnificent Best Mate, who won the race in 2002 after winning his first of three Cheltenham Gold Cups. It’s most celebrated winner however has to be the Henrietta Knight trained, Edredon Bleu who won the race four times successively between 1998-2001. He also won the 2000 Queen Mother Champion Chase as well as the 2003 King George VI Chase at Kempton Park.