On a good day, you can travel from Nantwich to Chester Racecourse by car in under 45 minutes.
It’s a trip that comes highly recommended too, because Chester has become something of a proving ground for some of the finest Flat racing horses around.
Hoping to become the next champion to join the list of horses that have won in the north west before having success elsewhere is Cleveland, who prevailed in the Chester Cup back in May.
The four-year-old was an impressive winner at the Boodles Festival.
Having been held up at the rear of the field, jockey Ryan Moore charted a path to the front and was rewarded as the game Cleveland powered into the lead and refused to give it up thereafter.
Aidan O’Brien will now point his charge at the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes on July 23, for which he is quoted as a 50/1 chance in the horse racing betting odds – Desert Crown, the impressive Epsom Derby champion, is the favourite with the bookmakers at 11/10.
You suspect that Cleveland would be a much shorter price had he won in his subsequent outing in the Copper Horse Stakes at Ascot in June.
But as the Paddy Power horse racing results would subsequently confirm, it was Get Shirty who showed he was made of the right stuff with victory in the handicap renewal.
Guess who?!
Cleveland wins the tote+ Chester Cup Handicap 🏆
Aidan O'Brien and Ryan Moore have been unstoppable this week! 👏#ITVRacing | #ChesterRaces | @Ballydoyle pic.twitter.com/Ai3bLImvzW
— ITV Racing (@itvracing) May 6, 2022
Cleveland has generally reserved his best work for softer ground, and while we have absolutely no interest in wishing a soggy summer upon the people of Cheshire and the rest of England, should the rain come down then the Chester Cup champion could enjoy a right royal result as he heads down to Ascot later this month.
Chester’s Proving Ground
It’s fascinating to see how success at Chester Racecourse is often replicated elsewhere on the Flat racing calendar – confirming the Cheshire track’s status as something of a proving ground.
Two winners of the Huxley Stakes at Chester – Deauville and Forest Ranger – would duke it out to the 1-2 in the Earl of Sefton Stakes at Newmarket, while the latter would also come second by a neck in the Darley Stakes at the same racecourse.
Deauville would net punters a handy 12/1 each way return in the Queen Anne Stakes at Ascot, while Cannock Chase would sign off his career in 2015 with victory in the Huxley Stakes – he had earlier triumphed in the Hampton Court Stakes and the London Gold Cup.
PICTURE OF THE DAY: Racegoers look on as Cannock Chase and Ryan Moore win the Huxley Stakes at #Chester pic.twitter.com/wOt03T4Vmm
— Racing Post (@RacingPost) May 5, 2016
Magic Circle won the Chester Cup and the Henry II Stakes at Sandown, and how about this for horse racing’s own version of soothsaying – the great Enable won just her second race in the Cheshire Oaks back in 2017.
She would go on to win an incredible eleven Group One races, like the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, the Epsom Oaks and the King George.
So, if you do find yourself making the short trip from Nantwich to Chester Racecourse, be sure to take your notebook with you!
You never know which stars of the future of racing you might see…
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