Best two-mile chasers come together for an Ascot showdown
One of the races of the season is in the offing at Ascot today as three of the top two-mile chasers in Britain square off in the Clarence House Chase.
The Grade One feature race can be summed up with a political analogy: Politologue is the Conservative incumbent two-mile champion; Waiting Patiently is Labour’s northern candidate; and last year’s winner, Defi Du Seuil, the younger Lib Dem hope from the West Country.
The other five in the Ascot poll look to have small-party credentials and chances akin to those of the late Screaming Lord Sutch.
Politologue is reunited with jockey Harry Cobden after being ridden by Harry Skelton to win December’s Tingle Creek and last season’s Cheltenham Champion Chase.
The pair teamed up, when Cobden was an emerging teenage talent, to win the Tingle Creek four years ago and Cobden, still only 22, is upbeat about an encore.
“I have sat on him quite a bit at home recently and he schooled really well with me on Monday,” said Cobden. “He’s in the form of his life and a huge part of that is a change in his training since he was beaten in the 2019 Tingle Creek.
“He hasn’t gone on the uphill gallop as much, going on the round and flat gallop. He’s a little bit older, but his form says he is as good as he ever has been and I wouldn’t change him for any of the others.”
The Yorkshire-trained Waiting Patiently is the joker in the pack, surprisingly supplemented for this after a staying-on second in the King George at Kempton over three miles. Defi Du Seuil has it all to prove after pulling up at Cheltenham last time, having flopped as favourite in the Champion Chase in March.
Earlier on at Ascot, Magic Of Life continues her preparation for the Grand National in which she chased home Tiger Roll in 2019.