Ascot confident ahead of weekend fixture Clerk of the course Chris Stickels is confident the winter weather will spare this weekend’s Betfair Ascot Chase meeting. Heavy rain caused abandonments for waterlogging at several courses this month, before the cold spell then wiped out the jumps fixture list last week. Stickels does not anticipate Saturday’s card at Ascot will come under threat, however — with much of the snow thawed already on ground currently varying between soft and heavy. “We’re still thawing — we were frozen solid yesterday lunchtime, and this morning we’re 90 per cent thawed,” he said. “There’s a little bit of frozen ground right in front of the grandstand, where there’s normally shadow. “We are a mixture of soft and heavy in places — otherwise we anticipate that all that frost will have come out of the ground by later this afternoon.” A combination of melting snow and further rain will inevitably nonetheless make for very testing ground. “It does leave it fairly wet at the moment,” added Stickels. “We had (that) bit of snow at the beginning of last week, and there is further rain forecast this week. “With the rain we have forecast, I wouldn’t imagine it would be a threat to us at all, but it will leave it testing. “We’ve got about 20mm in rain (forecast) through until Friday. Saturday at this stage looks dry — albeit it is a while away, and things can change. “That will leave us with similar ground to now — a mixture of soft and heavy. Which way (round) it’ll be will depend on the nature of the rainfall.” Cyrname is one of 10 contenders for Saturday’s Betfair Ascot Chase. The Paul Nicholls-trained nine-year-old needs to bounce back to form having failed to finish in the King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day. Prior to that, he had looked as good as ever when winning the Charlie Hall Chase at Wetherby and he did claim the Ascot Chase in 2019. Nicholls could also run Master Tommytucker, who has won three times already this season. On the ratings, Cyrname’s main opponent is the Colin Tizzard-trained Lostintranslation, who is dropping down in trip. Winner of last season’s Betfair Chase, he was only narrowly beaten in the Gold Cup in March, but was a distant third in the Betfair Chase in November and once again failed to run his race in the King George. Last year’s Ascot Chase hero Riders Onthe Storm is back again for Nigel Twiston-Davies, but he has yet to return to that sort of form in two outings this term. Saint Calvados, a narrow second in last term’s Ryanair Chase and fourth in the King George, could try to make amends after unseating Gavin Sheehan in the rearranged Cotswold Chase at Sandown. Bennys King, Dashel Drasher, Fanion D’Estruval, Kalashnikov and Terrefort complete the list.
