888sport Grimthorpe Chase Day, Doncaster Racecourse, Saturday 29th February 2020

Good morning from a sunny, albeit damp, Doncaster Racecourse, for the 888sport Grimthorpe Chase Day, on Irish Race Weekend.

With the abandonment of Newbury, only the north of the country supplies National Hunt fans with action this afternoon. As an aside, we can't believe Kelso is racing today; massive kudos to the groundstaff for getting the meeting on! Here, the going is Heavy. Yorkshire heavy. Proper stamina sapping stuff. It's going to be a day where if your horse comes back clean, then chances are they stayed out the front all race. The highlight today is of course the 888sport Grimthorpe Chase, but this year's renewal has been plagued with non-runners. In total, 4 out of the 11 horses declared have been taken out this morning, however Definitely Red and Saint Xavier were also declared up at Kelso. Last year's winner Chidswell is also a non-runner, and so 7 take their chance in the feature today. On a personal level, we are looking forward to seeing if Captain Chaos can follow up his Classic Chase second at Warwick 49 days ago. With Doncaster sure to suit him, he could be the one they all have to catch, and in these conditions, that will be no mean feat.

It might also be a very good day for Paul Nicholls; he saddles Worthy Farm in the Grimthorpe, to be ridden by Harry Cobden. He also has very good chances in the first race with recent Chepstow scorer Blackjack Kentucky (Harry Cobden), Dolos in the second race (Cobden) and Cill Anna (Cobden) in the third. Wonder how much an EW quadruple on those would fetch at time of writing?

Ben Pauling was due to saddle 2 in the fifth race, the "888sport follow us on Instagram Novices' Hurdle", however Now Is The Winter is now a non-runner, so as a result, with the Mark Bradstock trained I'm Here also a non-runner, just 3 will go to post. Hopefully all of them in a line over the final hurdle, please?

The final race of the day features a 5 runner bumper. Whitechurch, for Donald McCain and Lorcan Murtagh take particular interest. A £40,000 purchase after a fine Irish point-to-point career featuring 231 as his positions, he looks to have solid claims in this. He should make a fine chaser for McCain and owner Mr Trevor Hemmings in the future, and will be very closely watched on his NH debut.

Since I started writing this, the sun has parted the clouds even more, Mick Fitz has recommended the steak and potato pie in the press room, and we have a NAP for the day; Hayley Moore will be the first past the post... to grab the first slice of cake!