Six races will take place in front of the ITV Racing cameras on Thursday afternoon with five coming from day two of Chester’s May Meeting with a sole contest at Hamilton added in as well. We focus our attentions on the action on the Roodee and pick out our best bets for the action on 8th May, 2025.
1:30pm Chester – CAA Stellar Handicap
Hugo Palmer’s ROMAN DRAGON finished fifth in this race 12 months ago and he’s looking to build on that effort when taking another chance in the CAA Stellar Handicap at 1:30pm, which kicks off the afternoon action at Chester. Taking his chance off the same mark of 95, Palmer’s charge failed to make the most of stall one last season, but comes out of five in this year’s contest, so has some work to do.
However, he has notable experience at the track having won here three times before, so if Oisin Murphy can keep him prominent through the first half of the race and maintain a positive position then he could be more than capable of storming home and getting the better of the likes of Jer Batt and the veteran Copper Knight, who both warrant respect.
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2:35pm Chester – Boodles Raindance Dee Stakes
Aidan O’Brien has trained 11 winners of the Dee Stakes and sits alongside Barry Hills on that impressive number of successes in this Listed contest. The Ballydoyle handler will saddle a brace of runners in Thursday’s contest at 2:35pm and Mount Kilimanjaro is the selection of Ryan Moore, with Isambard Brunel set to be piloted by William Buick. The pair have notable chances, but Ralph Beckett’s CALLA LAGOON can down the pair of them and land the money in style.
The New Bay colt finished ahead of Isambard Brunel in an Ascot maiden back in September, so should be able to frank the form, while he was a decent second behind Tuscan Hills in a Listed event at Pontefract at the end of the season. Making his seasonal reappearance here, he steps up in trip which should bring on some notable improvement and if he can improve on his juvenile season then should be capable of notching up a second career win.
3:05pm Chester – Ladbrokes Big-Value You Can Bet On Ormonde Stakes
There may only be six runners lining up in the Group 3 Ormonde Stakes at 3:05pm, but there are some really smart older stayers taking their chance in the 3:05pm contest. However, it’s the team of Aidan O’Brien that can land the prize with the well fancied ILLINOIS, who can prove to be a real cut above his rivals here.
Ending the season with a Group 2 win at Longchamp over Arc weekend, the former Queen’s Vase hero has shown he relishes these sort of stamina contest, as was shown when he finished second in the St Leger last season. He will face a race-fit Absurde, who has to be respected, while Al Qareem is another classy performer lining up, but Illinois can stamp his quality on this race in the closing stages and simply pull clear of his rivals in the final furlong.
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