Emotions ran high when star chaser Sprinter Sacre emphatically returned to form in the Shloer Chase at Cheltenham’s Open meeting.
Emotion might be the primary reason he’s a 4/6 favourite for Kempton’s Desert Orchid Chase on Sunday – the same race he was dramatically pulled up in two years ago.
Sire De Grugy was the winner that year and went on to dominate the two-mile chasing division that season, and after a poor 2014/2015 also bounced back to his best to win his second Tingle Creek Chase last month.
Vibrato Valtat and Somersby were outclassed in the Tingle Creek and Sir Valentino has to improve massively to be competitive, so it looks a match between the two ex-Champion Chasers.
I can’t help but think the market has this one wrong, with Sire De Grugy backable at 4/1 at the time of writing.
From a racing fan’s perspective it’d be great to see Sprinter confirm he’s back to his best, but at Cheltenham he beat Somersby by a similar margin that Sire De Grugy did at Sandown, and received 10lbs from the rest of his rivals.
We should bet with our heads rather than hearts and siding with Gary Moore’s stable star makes the most sense from a value perspective.
It may be worth waiting for a morning price as Sprinter will certainly be popular amongst the masses.
1pt win Sire De Grugy @4/1, Kempton 14:00
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