15:35 Ascot

Saturday 4 November 2017

All12:4013:1513:5014:2515:0015:3516:05

Sodexo Gold Cup Handicap Chase (Grade 3)

Off time: 15:41 | Winning time: 6m 4.70s

Odds by:

Live Odds

Odds

Art Mauresque

25/1, 33/1, 25/1

20/1

Regal Encore

33/1, 25/1

33/1

The Young Master

20/1, 25/1, 20/1

16/1

Go Conquer

8/1, 15/2, 7/1, 15/2

7/1

Ultragold

20/1, 25/1, 20/1, 25/1, 20/1, 25/1, 20/1

25/1

Junction Fourteen

14/1, 16/1, 14/1

16/1

Braqueur D'Or

15/2, 7/1, 13/2

7/1

Emerging Force

7/1, 13/2, 6/1

11/2

Thomas Brown

8/1, 9/1, 10/1

9/1

Ballykan

16/1

Rock Gone

20/1, 16/1

20/1

Ballycross

14/1, 12/1

11/1

Dark Flame

8/1, 9/1, 10/1, 11/1, 10/1, 11/1, 10/1, 11/1

10/1

Antony

7/1, 13/2, 6/1, 11/2, 6/1, 11/2, 6/1, 13/2, 6/1, 11/2, 5/1

4/1

Fourth Act

10/1, 9/1

10/1

Meldrum Lad

33/1, 50/1, 33/1, 40/1

50/1

SP Book Percentage 138.7

Non-Runners

Carole's Destrier³¹²

Weight: 11-12| Age: 9

T: N P Mulholland J: N D Fehily

Bigbadjohn²¹

Weight: 11-2| Age: 8

T: Miss R Curtis J: Jonathan Moore

Forecasts

Antony (4/1), Emerging Force (11/2), Go Conquer (7/1), Braqueur D'Or (7/1), Thomas Brown (9/1), Dark Flame (10/1), Fourth Act (10/1), Ballycross (11/1), Carole's Destrier (14/1), Ballykan (16/1), Junction Fourteen (16/1), Bigbadjohn (16/1), The Young Master (16/1), Rock Gone (20/1), Art Mauresque (20/1), Ultragold (25/1), Regal Encore (33/1), Meldrum Lad (50/1)

An eagerly anticipated early season highlight, and the feature race on today's card at Ascot. Antony defends his crown after accounting for both Junction Fourteen (4½L runner up) and Fourth Act (8L fourth) in 2016, and he follows the same route into the race via Fontwell. However, unlike in 2016, he wasn't the winner at Fontwell, and this time around he was beaten 14L by the bold front running selection GO CONQUER. The Jonjo O'Neill trained winner is 7lb higher than for that success, but the overall form looks strong, with 2L runner up As De Mee taking a valuable contest for Paul Nicholls up at Kelso last weekend. Go Conquer stays this longer trip without any real problems, and unless it comes up very soft (most unlikely) this fast improving eight-year-old is fancied to break the hearts of his seventeen other rivals off the front end.