Although he failed to impress a number of observers at Wetherby last weekend when winning the Grade 2 Towton Novices’ Chase, there has been a notable market move for the Ian Williams-trained Wayward Prince in the RSA Chase, the novice chasers ‘Gold Cup’, writes Elliot Slater.
The seven-year-old made it three wins from three outings over the larger obstacles when staying-on dourly to account for Cape Tribulation by two lengths, but many people had expected him to put up a more impressive display if he was to have a serious chance of competing with the likes of Time For Rupert in the Grade 1 Cheltenham Festival contest. Although many punters will be focused on the Cheltenham Gold Cup betting, this race should provide almost as much excitement.
Despite reservations about the quality of his Wetherby victory there were a number of interesting market moves midweek for Williams’ charge who is now as low as 10/1 with some firms having been available at 16/1 at the start of the week. In the winners’ enclosure at Wetherby his trainer observed that he was very happy with the performance as there hadn’t been a strong enough pace for his horse and it turned into something of a sprint from the home turn.
Wayward Prince is definitely at his best when able to settle in behind a decent pace and that is something that looks all but guaranteed in the RSA Chase where they normally go a ferocious gallop for most of the three-mile trip. It is quite likely that ante-post punters have factored this eventuality into the market move and on this basis the Alflora gelding has come in for support.
There’s no doubt that, at his best, Wayward Prince is a very classy performer having ended last term winning the Grade 1 John Smith’s Sefton Novices’ Hurdle at the Aintree Festival, beating Western Leader by six lengths.
