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When it comes to favourites for big, Saturday handicaps Cap Du Nord looks somewhere close to rock solid.
He’s a young, improving chaser on a serious upward trajectory and is already 3lb ahead of the handicapper having split subsequent winners Royale Pagaille and Double Shuffle when second at Kempton on December 27.
Double Shuffle, 19 lengths adrift in third on that occasion, has since won off 2lb lower back over the same course and distance during January, while Royale Pagaille has gone on to win the Peter Marsh Handicap Chase at Haydock pulling the proverbial cart, and now commands an official rating of 166.
Equally, there’s enough pace on with Yorkhill, Aye Right and Rockys Treasure to just about put me off that particular trio, and the value may now lie with Give Me A Copper and Nicky Richards’ GUITAR PETE (40/1 Betfair, Paddy Power 1/5 1,2,3,4,5).
I’m convinced Give Me A Copper can win races off this sort of mark despite creeping up another 3lb for his course second behind Rockys Treasure on his first outing since a breathing operation last month, but on a testing surface, and at huge odds, I prefer the claims of Guitar Pete.
He handles all types of ground and should be well placed when the race unfolds as while he’s versatile tactically, he’s likely to sit mid-division early on and let the pace-setters do their thing.
The 11-year-old was just starting to make a meaningful-looking move before taking a crunching fall in the Kempton race won by Double Shuffle earlier this month, and must be none the worse or he wouldn’t be reappearing so soon.
That came after an eyecatching comeback fourth at Wetherby, where he has a really good record (form of 212104), and with that in mind it’s surprising he’s never been to Doncaster, where Richards’ late father, Gordon, won this race three times in its former guise.
The betting suggests Guitar Pete – who beat Clan Des Obeaux to win the 2017 Caspian Caviar Gold Cup at Cheltenham – is completely over the hill now but those two outings so far this season suggest the opposite is true, and from a handicapping point of view he’s only 3lb higher than when readily seeing off Happy Diva in a Listed handicap at the start of last season.
He’s certainly no forlorn hope to roll back the years and can be supported each-way at 40s with a bunch of firms offering extra places.
Published at 1700 GMT on 29/01/21