Waiting Patiently spices up field for Clarence House

The Clarence House Chase clash at Ascot on Saturday between Champion Chase winner Politologue and that race’s beaten favourite, Defi Du Seuil, was given extra spice by a surprise supplementary entry yesterday. Top northern chaser Waiting Patiently, runner-up in the three-mile King George VI chase on Boxing Day, has been added for £6,250 for just a second try at a much shorter trip.

The 10-year-old, trained by Ruth Jefferson, has under a length to find with Defi Du Seuil from the 2019 Tingle Creek, in which Politologue was only fifth. The official handicapper has only 2lb between the three of them going into the Matchbooksponsored Grade One over two miles and a furlong.

A month after Cheltenham Stayers’ Hurdle flop Paisley Park edged out Thyme Hill in an engrossing Long Walk Hurdle, Saturday is poised to produce another memorable Ascot contest. Defi Du Seuil will be playing the Paisley Park role, having also disappointed when favourite at last year’s Cheltenham Festival behind Politologue, but has even more to prove after another tame effort at Cheltenham in November.

Ascot has announced that the five-day royal meeting in June will feature seven races each day, after the positive reaction across the industry to last year’s pandemicprompted changes.

While the consolation Royal Hunt Cup and Wokingham races are not retained, there is one new race alongside last year’s other additions. That is the Kensington Palace Stakes, a new handicap for fouryear-old-plus fillies and mares.

Haydock rivals Ascot for intrigue on Saturday with the return of dual Champion Hurdle winner Buveur D’air in the Grade Two New One Unibet Hurdle. The 10-year-old, subject of a glowing gallop report from trainer Nicky Henderson last week, will face no more than four rivals, including Song For Someone, in his first race since losing a chunk of his hoof after being staked in the foot in the 2019 Fighting Fifth Hurdle.