Tony McFadden provides an overview of the key things to note on Friday.
Progressive Jongleur d'Etoiles goes chasing
Fontwell has been a happy hunting ground for Neil Mulholland who needs one more winner to bring up a century at the course. Mulholland has five runners at the track on Friday, with Jongleur d'Etoiles, who makes his first start over fences in the handicap chase at 13:25, looking like one of the most interesting contenders.
Last season's tally of 74 winners was Mulholland's best since he registered a century in the 2016/17 campaign and Jongleur d'Etoiles contributed three wins to the total, while he also added one to this season's record when landing a staying handicap hurdle at Fontwell in May.
Those four wins were all achieved at distances around three miles or further, so tackling a trip just shy of two and a half miles on his chasing debut will pose a different test for Jongleur d'Etoiles. However, his progressive profile over hurdles marks him out as an interesting recruit to chasing at a lowly level, and it would be little surprise were he to possess too much ability for his rivals in this class 5 affair.
Martator looks well treated after a break
Martator ended last season with a string of disappointing displays but the handicapper has offered some respite as a consequence and he is now only 1 lb above his last winning mark. That victory in the Hurst Park Handicap Chase at Ascot, which extended his winning sequence to five, was achieved by 11 lengths, so Martator is clearly running off a handy mark in the Haldon Gold Cup (14:25) at Exeter if the summer break has helped rejuvenate him.
His performance when winning the Byrne Group Handicap Chase on his reappearance at Ascot last season offers encouragement for his prospects first time up this time around, as does trainer Venetia Williams' record with chasers returning from an absence. Her first jumps runner since May, Bucksy des Epeires, disappointed when a well-backed favourite at Fontwell a couple of weeks ago, but Djelo saw things out strongly to win the Charlie Hall on his return last weekend.
Since the start of the 2020/21 jumps season, backing each of Venetia Williams' chasers returning from an absence of 150 days or longer would have returned a profit of £68.81 to £1 level stakes.
Return to Newcastle the key for Bowood
Bowood habitually fails to break on terms and only once this season has Timeform's reporter not given him an in-running symbol to denote a slow start. He was again slowly away at Newcastle last time but the stiff, straight mile at that track tends to favour hold-up performers more than the other all-weather venues, which are tighter in nature and where races are often not so soundly run, and Bowood responded with his best performance of the season to run out an emphatic winner.
Bowood, who was making his first start at Newcastle since January 2024, travelled typically powerfully in rear and picked up well when asked to scoot four and a half lengths clear, earning the Horse In Focus Flag from Timeform's reporter to mark him out as one likely to be of interest next time.
He was running off a mark 16 lb lower than when runner-up at Southwell on his final start of 2024, so Bowood still looks very well treated under a 5 lb penalty back over the same course and distance (17:30) as last time; indeed, he heads Timeform's weight-adjusted ratings by 5 lb.
That recent victory came on Bowood's first trip to Newcastle since joining Ivan Furtado, but it's worth noting he had been placed at the track on four of his five starts there for Katie Scott.
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