It seems like just five minutes ago Ascot was crowning British champions on the Flat, but now it is about to get its jumps season into full swing with a valuable Saturday card.

Disappointingly a mere 68 runners have been declared for the entire card of seven races, with just thirteen entered for this usually competitive three-miler worth £100,000.

In theory, that should make our job easier at and the time of writing we’re still going 9/2 the field, so there may be a juicy bet yet to come from our shortlisted six runners.

Main Contenders

Annsam

Evan Williams, as we all know, is well adept at getting horses ready for a big challenge such as this handicap chase and it’s not as though his Annsam doesn’t have solid credentials.

A winner of two chases, Annsam in fact took the Silver Cup at this track last winter so there is some crucial course form in the book.

Alongside two wins however have come two pulled-up efforts, and off this mark of 139 further improvement will be needed to score again.

Danny Kirwan

Paul Nicholls’ runner can be a hard one to read. At a glance you’d say his best form has come on genuinely good ground which can be enough to put you off in this race. He did however win a soft ground maiden hurdle at this track some time ago.

If he does handle the ground then he would appear to hold every chance off the same mark of 133 that he has been on since he went chasing a year and two victories ago.

Full Back

At double-figure odds, Gary Moore’s runner provides a decent each-way option for punters having proven himself at good tracks, on softer ground and over a bit of a trip.

Though it may mean nothing now, he was pulled-up on his only other start over Ascot’s fences which adds in a little bit of doubt.

Major Dundee

Major Dundee may just have a little bit of everything in the context of this race.

He has the tactical speed in between fences at this sort of distance to run a strong race, we know he stays and he’s handled everything from good ground to soft ground.

He didn’t get him in the Scottish Grand National back in April, but he’s had a good rest since then and that was only his fourth career steeplechase and he still managed third place.

He earned a mark of 132 at Newbury back in March and he remains on that rating now. There is absolutely no doubt he will have improved plenty since then, how much is anyone’s guess, but he should prove to be very well handicapped, he goes well fresh and he can handle the heat of a competitive chase.

Our Power

Sam Thomas’ Our Power is having only his seventh career chase, so in theory we can expect some improvement from him. That being said, he’s had 26 runs overall and moved up only from an opening mark of 130 to 136 over fences so far.

Having taken in the Coral Trophy at Kempton and the Ultima at Cheltenham he’s been tried in these big handicap chases and so far, proven to have been not good enough. Time will tell whether or not he can yet up his game.

Tea Clipper

Whatever the ultimate result, we should expect much more this weekend from Tea Clipper than we saw when he was a beaten 11/8 favourite at Chepstow last time out. That is on account of the ground and it isn’t as though he ran badly in Wales, finishing a neck second.

Now that he’s been sharpened up, the Listed chase winner and Ultima fourth can make his presence felt in another big race.

Summary

Evan Williams is great at preparing horses for big handicap chase races and his Annsam is a course winner, which is a positive.

He can go well as can Tea Clipper who is capable of winning a race of this nature, however there is so much to like about MAJOR DUNDEE who went off 9/1 for the Scottish Grand National in the spring.