Peter Marsh Chase History and Trends
The Peter Marsh Chase is a Grade Two handicap chase open to horses aged five or older and run over 3m at Haydock Park. First run in 1981, it’s a recognised trial for the Aintree Grand National in April and regularly attracts useful staying chasers from the UK & Ireland.
Past winners include subsequent Gold Cup winners Little Owl, Bregawn and The Thinker. Earth Summit won it in 1995 and three years later stormed to victory at Aintree. General Wolfe and Jodami are the only horses to have won the Peter Marsh more than once.
Seven of the last eight winners had run between 3 and 5 times during the current season, the others had run just twice – seven had won at least once. All of the last nine winners had either won or been placed over three miles or beyond, the exception had yet to tackle the distance. Only one winner hadn’t previously won a handicap and eight of the last nine winners had previously run at Haydock with seven being placed at least.
Alary (a general 7/2) is an interesting contender in this year’s Peter Marsh. He’s joined the all-conquering Colin Tizzard stable and has a Gold Cup entry. His French form stands up to scrutiny (second in a Grade 1 at Auteuil in November) but he is giving away lumps of weight to his rivals.
Definitly Red won the Rowland Meyrick at Wetherby on Boxing Day and four of the last nine winners of the Peter Marsh had their previous run in that race. Brian Ellison’s second-season chaser is a best 5/1 but he had earlier finished behind BRISTOL DE MAI (5/1 with Boylesports among others) on better terms in the Rehearsal Chase at Newcastle.
Nigel Twiston-Davies’ six-year-old certainly deserves a change of luck as he’s finished second four times in a row since winning the Grade 1 Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase at Sandown just under a year ago. Otago Trail won that Newcastle race but may struggle to confirm that running on 5lb worse terms – Bishops Road and Virak were behind and look held.
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Sausalito Sunrise could be running into form and is attractively priced at a general 11/1 while Vintage Clouds represents last year’s winning stable and is 10/1 on Betfair. Sue Smith’s novice has yet to win over fences and is 6lb out of the handicap but has never finished out of the first two in five runs at Haydock and does give the impression he has more to offer.
Peter Marsh Chase Current Best Odds
Alary (7/2), Bristol De Mai and Definitly Red (5/1), Vintage Clouds (10/1), Sausalito Sunrise (11/1), Otago Trail (14/1), O Maonlai and Virak (16/1), Bishops Road and Firebird Flyer (20/1), Katenko (25/1), Gevrey Chambertin (33/1), Berea Boru and Seventh Sky (40/1)
