High quality racing at Exeter will be shown live on ITV4 today, the feature race being the Haldon Gold Cup Handicap Chase (14:25). This is a tough early season handicap to unpick given the main protagonists are all returning from more than 200 days off the track. It's a small yet competitive field of five that go to post for the £60,000 prize and it's difficult to gauge who will be fully tuned up for their return. Punt responsibly.
The feature race is preceded by the Future Stars Silver Bowl Novices' Chase (13:50) where we essentially have a match race between Captain Teague (1/2) and Deafening Silence (13/8). Both runners are making their chase debuts for big hitting trainers, Paul Nicholls and Dan Skelton respectively. They'll be racing off level weights today, which means Captain Teague appears to have the immediate edge given he's rated 9lbs superior to his main rival.
The highlight of Captain Teague's season over hurdles last year was a gutsy win in the Grade 1 Challow Novices' Hurdle. If we look at the subsequent form of the horses he beat that day it makes for interesting reading. Lookaway was 2nd; he then went on to finish 3rd in a Grade 1 at the Aintree festival and also won on his chase debut just last week. The Jukebox Man was 3rd and he could hardly have franked the form any better as he then achieved a brace of 2nd place finishes in both Grade 1 races at Cheltenham and Aintree. Johnnywho and Masaccio were 4th and 5th respectively, both have also won on their early season chasing bows, appearing to be well above average.
There's a nagging doubt surrounding the early season form of the Nicholls yard, THM Trainer stats highlighting that he's operating at just a 13% strike rate in the last month, significantly below his usual lofty standards. Comparably, Skelton is up at 20% strike rate over the last month. Both horses are unproven on the Ground; neither horse has raced on anything better than good to soft - an added ponderable to the equation.