Betfred Tommy Whittle Handicap Chase – 2.05 Haydock Park – Saturday 20th December

You’d normally associate the Haydock staying handicap chases throughout the winter, like Saturday’s Betfred Tommy Whittle Handicap Chase, the Peter Marsh, the Last Fling and a few others, with grizzled regular old-stagers slogging their way round the Lancashire mud time after time.

But this Saturday’s edition of the Tommy Whittle features a fascinating likely contender in the shape of Grand Geste, who can be backed as a 2-star ** recommendation for WhichBookie at 5/1 each-way with Coral, who are the only firm offering 4 places at this ante-post stage.

Most handicap chases are open to novices if they’ve had three runs over fences or finished in the first 4 in two starts over fences, and it’s this last-mentioned angle which allows Grand Geste to contest this valuable prize off the back of only two chase starts.

Perceived wisdom and convention suggest that many would never consider running a novice in such a race, but the forward-thinking enough within the game see the benefit of running a novice in valuable handicaps, as they are clearly more unexposed and liable to still have something in hand of the handicapper.

Last season’s Novice Handicap Chase and Plate at the Cheltenham Festival was an ideal case-in-point, as 4 of the first 5 home in the Plate were novices, for whom connections saw a better opportunity for, against a largely exposed group of older horses.

Kudos to Joel Parkinson and Sue Smith for pitching Grand Geste into Saturday’s contest, as off the back of two excellent runs in his first two chasing assignments, crucially where he barely touched a twig, he can now prove to be by far the most progressive runner in the field.

Stepping up to 3m+ for the first time over fences, and at a track where perhaps his best run over hurdles came, (when staying on over 3m into 3^rd in a decent novice hurdle on soft ground,) this excellent piece of placement can be rewarded with a massive run from Grand Geste.

If you needed any reassurance that this is what Grand Geste could be ideally suited to, then just have a look at his sire’s stats in staying chases on heavy ground at Haydock. Cloudings’ progeny reads like a who’s who of Haydock stalwarts!

I fully expected Grand Geste to be clear favourite and am advising him at 5/1 each-way for 4 places with Coral now, but also once final declarations are out, I wouldn’t mind betting that a similar price/place terms option will be available. It’s a bet at any stage until he’s clear favourite by a margin in my opinion.