Real Steel looks to be in with a good shout at Chepstow

GET your notebooks ready for Chepstow’s excellent two-day jump season opener today and tomorrow, where almost every race is likely to feature good prospects for the rest of the campaign.

Paul Nicholls always targets this meeting. Most of his horses will be short prices, though perhaps not Real Steel in the 2.25 tomorrow; the ex-Willie Mullins chaser’s form figures look poor, but he ran very well in the 2020 Gold Cup and the handicapper has given him a great chance if he is back near his best.

That day also features the launch of a new book ‘Champion Jump Horse Racing Jockeys’, which tells the stories of the 22 post-war National Hunt champion jockeys, some of whom will be present, as will the author, journalist Neil Clark. Dick Francis’s son Felix, like his father a top writer of racing thrillers, has written the foreword and will be signing copies.

Hopefully a few of you will have had a pound each way on Torquator Tasso, the 80/1 winner of the Arc de Triomphe, put forward in last week’s column as a horse who could outrun his odds.

Testing ground was a factor, as is often the case on Arc day, and the French authorities are beginning to think about moving the race to September in search of better going.

We have the same problem with Champions Day and the invariably soft ground at Ascot in mid-October. Moving it back to Newmarket – where good going is much more likely – would solve that problem, but everyone seems to think the day must be held at the course with the grandest facilities rather than the best track for the horses.

Better still would be to bring Champions Day forward to a time when good to firm or good ground is prevalent.

That implies the period between the Ebor and the St Leger. The Saturday of August Bank Holiday weekend, which has no major meetings, would fit the bill. In the spirit of levelling up, it could alternate between Ascot and York. The BHA should take the initiative and make some plans before the French do.

Of course, all this is easier said than done, given that none of the main racing countries can change their big race dates without consulting the other countries.

Newmarket tomorrow sees the annual novelty of a Group race for two-year-olds over a mile and a quarter. Of the two Godolphin horses heading the market, Goldspur is preferred to the favourite Hafit.