Weatherite Novices' Chase

Off time: 17:02 | Winning time: 4m 5.2s

Marracudja^h,t⁸¹

Age: 6| Weight: 11-8| J: Sam Twiston-Davies| T: P F Nicholls| OR: 146

8/11

Winner over fences here in October and highly tried since finishing behind Altior at Sandown and Kempton in December. Burst blood vessels when pulling up over an extended 2m in a Grade 2 contest at Doncaster in January and carrying a penalty today.

Form: 1142P2-

Aminabad^p1,t¹¹

Age: 7| Weight: 11-5| J: Nick Scholfield| T: P Griffin| OR: 127

20/1

Winner of a novice chase on good-to-soft ground over 2m3f at Catterick in January. Well beaten twice since including when returning to hurdles at Aintree earlier this month and wears cheekpieces for the first time today.

Form: 74130F

Deadly Approach^t¹⁶

Age: 6| Weight: 11-5| J: R T Dunne| T: S-J Davies| OR: 116

16/1

Successful off a mark of 104 at Ludlow over 2m on good-to-soft ground in February. Well beaten off his revised mark at the same track subsequently and has plenty to find on ratings here.

Form: 3UU143-

Mick Thonic^t³³

Age: 7| Weight: 11-0| J: H Cobden| T: C L Tizzard| OR: 132

13/8

Yet to win in seven starts over fences including three for this stable. Solid effort when finishing runner-up over 2m4f here in October on his debut for this stable but weakening when falling heavily back here the following month and has to put a poor handicap debut last month behind him today.

Form: 3FP32F

Forecasts

Marracudja (8/11), Mick Thonic (13/8), Deadly Approach (16/1), Aminabad (20/1)

MICK THONIC receives weight from all his rivals here and can get his chasing career back on track by breaking his maiden at the eighth attempt in this. The selection finished runner-up here over further in October and can get the better of top weight Marracudja who bled last time out and is likely to start a short price for this contest. Aminabad was a promising horse a couple of years ago and looks capable of winning the race for third place ahead of Deadly Approach.