SAM TURNER
BRITAIN’S NO 1 TIPSTER
POLITOLOGUE (Aintree, 3.25) was denied the chance to defend his Queen Mother Champion Chase title by an 11th-hour setback but today’s Marsh Chase offers the opportunity for compensation. The popular grey contests today’s Grade One feature for the third time having beaten and been second to Min in the last two renewals, and the lack of a recent run is usually no barrier to success with him. Politologue has raced six times when he has been rested for 76 days or more and those outings have yielded five victories and a narrow defeat at the hands of Defi Du Seuil when the selection was trying to concede weight to an extremely talented performer. His most recent effort at Ascot in January was not a career-best but his conqueror, First Flow, enjoyed the perfect set up to gallop to a seven-length win and the selection is arguably better over further these days. Hopefully he can find a good early rhythm for Harry Cobden and the duo can resist the challenge of Fakir D’oudairies, who spent most of the Ryanair Chase striving to get close to Allaho. The Irish raider looks a big contender if that race has not left its mark, as the pace was brutal and the time figure extremely swift. With that in mind, the doughty Nuts Well may emerge as a live threat because connections were keen to save him for this race. A game winner of Aintree’s Old Roan Chase at the expense of Clondaw Castle, the 10-year-old also boasts a terrific record fresh, as well as developing a brilliant association with rider Danny McMenamin, whose figures aboard him include five victories and a third place.