Delta Work is a smart operator and likes Leopardstown
It's a great time of year for racing and the Savills Chase at Leopardstown on Saturday looks a cracking opportunity for an early bet given that ante-post market leaders Kemboy and Presenting Percy each have significant questions to answer.
Last year’s winner Kemboy being off the track since his dominant displays at Aintree and Punchestown in the spring wouldn’t bother me necessarily, but he’s surely going to sharpen up for a run after all the uncertainty over his availability for selection this time around.
He'd won the Clonmel Oil Chase in mid-November to put him straight for last year’s big Christmas Grade 1, in which he thrashed Monalee 7.50 lengths with a slightly unfortunate Road To Respect – the 9-4 favourite - third.
Much like his trainer, Presenting Percy has become a bit of an elusive character but didn’t shape badly at all when third behind Min in the John Durkan. He does seem to love an undulating track so while he’s seemingly still got all the ability to go a long way in the staying chase ranks, Leopardstown might not absolutely play to his strengths. His only previous course run was that staying-on fifth in the 2016 Pertemps qualifier.
Road To Respect and Monalee both look like coming back for another bite at the cherry and the latter wouldn’t be without a chance as a relatively unconsidered 16-1 shot this year.
Cheltenham hero Al Boum Photo is another right in the mix and some deep winter ground would presumably be welcome for his connections. He has the 'other' Savills Chase at Tramore on New Year's Day as an alternative option and this race might not provide quite enough of a test for the Gold Cup winner, who will also be making his first start of the season.
Clear preference – at the current prices at least – is for Delta Work.
He was a top-class novice, has had a run in November and will be perfectly suited to 4800m around the relatively tight turns of Leopardstown.
The latter factor we already know to be true in light of his eight-length victory over Mortal in the Grade 1, 3200m novice event on the same card last December, after which he was a fine third to Topofthegame in the RSA Chase at Cheltenham before winning the Champion Novice Chase at Punchestown at the end of April.
Gordon Elliott’s six-year-old remains a top prospect in spite of his disappointing seasonal reappearance at Down Royal, where he was sticky at his fences and could only plug on at the one pace as Road To Respect and Clan Des Obeaux fought out the finish.
That effort needs to be left a long way behind, but it looks perfectly possible – he improved at least a stone from his first to second start last season – and no doubt Elliott will have aimed for this prize after what he did at the same meeting a year ago.
Unfortunately, this year's traditional Boxing Day feature - the King George VI Chase at Kempton - is less appealing from a betting perspective.
Take nothing away from the race at all, it looks a fascinating clash between Cyrname, Lostintranslation and last year's winner Clan Des Obeaux, but the juice has already been sapped from the market.
There's a case to be made for the top two shortening further still, but if Footpad and Thistlecrack end up being declared then it's hard to imagine anything going off odds-on, so it could pay to sit and wait if you fancy backing one of the principals.
The one from left-field I'd really love to see stand his ground is Min, who won the John Durkan without being overly impressive on his seasonal return. Trainer Willie Mullins has spoken about stretching him out to 4800m in the past and even name-checked this race after the Melling Chase at Aintree in April, but it doesn't look like coming to fruition.
The temptation to back him to small stakes eachway at 40-1 in the hope he shows up is there, admittedly, but it's just about resistible with Lostintranslation the one I'm most keen on back at the top of the betting.
On Friday the main betting race is the Paddy Power Chase over the extended 3200m, where Spider Web is the one to be on.
He's likely going to be one of many JP McManus representatives in the race but it's his course record at Leopardstown that really stands out as he's won big handicap chases there on his last two visits. They came in the 201718 campaign and he's a bit higher in the ratings now but he landed last season's Munster National and made a promising reappearance in the same race this time around.
He bumped into the evidently well-treated Cabaret Queen that day, on ground that was plenty testing enough for the son of Presenting and did well in the circumstances to finish best of the rest.
The assessor has nudged him up another 1kg for his troubles but the return to Leopardstown will hopefully help eke out a little more from Tom Mullins' horse, who could just be coming to his prime as an eightyear-old. He's 16-1, which looks more than fair.
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