Published 8.36 & 9.54 - all selections online

On the back of some smart juvenile form, which included a win here at Chester, it’s possibly too soon to give up on SIR ALBERT (2.10) who looks overpriced on the pick of his 2025 efforts.

The son of No Nay Never was just touched off in the Listed Flying Scotsman Stakes at Doncaster last year, by both Avicenna and Hankelow, two horses who have undoubtedly boosted the form this season, but it was a run worth upgrading given he set a nice gallop into a stiff enough headwind.

In three subsequent runs, Andrew Balding’s inmate has been hit and miss, although two starts back at Lingfield he made a solid seasonal debut before missing three months, seemingly with some kind of setback.

A run two weeks ago up at Carlisle might have blown the cobwebs away. As his price of 66/1 suggested, he wasn’t fancied, but he also received quite a strange ride having hit the gates well. Soon after he was aggressively reined back from a wide draw and essentially played no part.

On what I saw from him as a juvenile, Sir Albert is blessed with good gate speed, early pace and is best being allowed stride on and use himself. Drawn in the plumb box 1 today, surely that’s what his jockey PJ McDonald will do.

A return to Chester and a kinder surface compared to Carlisle will hopefully spark him back to life. If it does, he looks well-handicapped off a mark of 96, given I had him running to 100 in the Flying Scotsman, a race that has worked out nicely.

Late on, stamina could be an issue looking at his striding data, but his well-related dam is from a proper middle distance family, although No No Never tends to inject real pace into his progeny. With 14y added to the extended 7f trip with rail movements, hopefully the ground continues to dry, just to put more emphasis on speed.

SAVVY VICTORY (3.23 Chester) has been a high-class animal from early on in his career, but often highly-tried and over faced at times, but the Handicapper is starting to give the old boy a chance, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him run well again here at Chester.

The son of New Bay has twice competed on The Roodee, producing form figures of 32. He was well-held and beaten a long way in the Derby Trial Chester Vase Stakes back in 2022, but he was a 20/1 shot against some classy sorts over a trip that he clearly didn’t stay.

Sean Woods’s inmate has always been a 10f performer and his sole run over this course and distance in May of 2023 saw him finish second in a handicap off a mark of 104 (races off 96 today) on similar ground to what he will compete on today.

Now, he obviously isn’t as good as his career high mark of 111 anymore, but he continues to drop down the handicap and his 2026 debut behind Gethin at Kempton suggested he can still be competitive off his new mark.

After Kempton, he failed to fire in a race at Pontefract and hasn’t been seen in 53 days but he capable of running well fresh, has hopefully been freshened up and maybe more importantly, his trainer’s horses are going well at the moment.

I often think some of the older horses enjoy coming to different tracks like Chester and it’s a place that can spark them back to life. There is plenty to look at here and is a track that seemingly always gets a good crowd through the gate. Hopefully that will put a bit of fire in his belly today. It’s obviously a big plus he’s run well here before.

The selection hasn’t won since December of 2024, so a top-three finish bet is suggested.