Racing analysis: David Ord on Pic D'Orhy's Betfair Ascot Chase win

A Grade One contest should never be a trial for any horse – and in the case of Pic D’Orhy the Betfair Ascot Chase wasn’t. This was his big day and the first four strides proved it.

As Charlie Deutsch aboard L’Homme Presse and Derek Fox on Ahoy Senor prepared for the tape to rise - Harry Cobden took straight aim at it and Pic D’Orhy was never to see another horse.

He can be deadly around Ascot and was always going half-a-gear quicker than the chasing pack could muster.

Clear turning in, he was never threatened and powered to the line to score by five-and-a-half lengths.

For the winner all roads lead to Aintree and the Marsh Chase he won last season, Paul Nicholls has a readymade Ryanair Chase contender in Stage Star this time around too, but for L’Homme Presse this was his final race before a Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup bid.

He’d returned from 391 days off the track to beat Protektorat in the Fleur de Lys Chase at Lingfield last month and nothing about that performance suggested stepping back to two-and-a-half miles was going to play to his strengths.

Nor, potentially, was going right-handed and throw in the quicker ground and the bounce factor that is never far from anyone's thoughts over a horse with his profile coming into Saturday’s race, and there were questions to answer.

In the end owner Andy Edwards probably summed it up perfectly when he told Matt Chapman of his Gold Cup prospects after the race: “He had the same chance yesterday as he does now.”.

It was that sort of run, not disastrous, he was just out of his comfort zone throughout, putting himself right by going left at virtually every fence.

Staying chases are all about momentum – the intermediate distance ones require it too – but L’Homme Presse had none on Saturday.

I wouldn’t like to put a number on the run – I’ll leave that to the Timeform handicappers in our office. Gut feeling is he was a pound or two below Lingfield – meaning in two starts over fences this term he’s been six or seven adrift of his peak runs in 2022

True the Gold Cup test promises to suit but it leaves him with plenty to find on the final day of next month’s Festival and he’s still as short as 10/1. However you look at it, this wasn't the ideal launch pad.

And as Nicholls posed for celebratory photos about 50 metres from the L’Homme Presse team after Saturday's race I couldn’t help wonder whether he’s actually the one with the Gold Cup bet at this stage.

Look maybe Bravemansgame would be better off in a Ryanair but he’s not going there. He’s heading for the Blue Riband, the race in which he gave a peak Galopin Des Champs a scare or two last term.

Three runs this season haven’t been quite as good – but they were still better on Timeform figures than anything L’Homme Presse has achieved so far in 2024.

And he’s 20/1. There are encouraging noises coming out of Ditcheat over his current wellbeing and of course the champion trainer has no peers when it comes to bringing a staying chaser to their peak on the day that matters most.

Elsewhere Nemean Lion won the Jennings Bet Kingwell Hurdle at Wincanton, beating Colonel Mustard in a race that in the past has had a bearing on the Champion Hurdle. It won’t this time. The winner is at least in the Unibet-sponsored day one highlight but Kerry Lee isn’t one for tilting at windmills. Aintree or Fairyhouse are the likely alternatives.

Finale Hurdle winner Salver added Haydock’s Victor Ludorum to his big-race haul and is a single-figure price in a place for the Triumph. It would need to be very deep ground for him to even run though.

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The Newton-Le-Willows track staged their Virgin Bet Grand National Trial and it was won by Yeah Man for Gavin Cromwell and Sean Flanagan. He isn't even in te Aintree showpiece.

Threeunderthrufive is and he can be backed at 25/1 for the the great race after defying top weight to win Ascot’s Injured Jockeys Fund Ambassadors Programme Swinley Handicap Chase.

Connections will no doubt be doing the maths as the curtains swing open in Liverpool on Tuesday to reveal the weights for this year’s renewal. Even with only 34 in the field you’d think he’d make the cut now.

Whether he wins? Well that can wait.

Because it felt like that sort of day. One to enjoy the here-and-now, particularly the brilliance of Cobden to seize the big race of the day by the scruff of the neck and leave a few others with some head scratching to do.

Sir Anthony McCoy said on ITV that Martin Pipe told him "you can’t win a race at the start but can you lose one".

The great man, Pipe that is, might just change his mind if he watches a replay of Saturday’s race.

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