Art Mauresque a Big Price on Favoured Ground for Doncaster Glory

Quite a few horses have had their season’s held up this winter due to the faster than normal ground at many tracks, including Doncaster. However, one horse who prefers better ground is Art Mauresque and on the forecast good going, he looks to be a big price for glory in Saturday’s SkyBet listed handicap chase.

You have to go back to October 2016 to find the last win for this nine year old, but he has been running some strong races since then, and he looks as though he could finally get his head in front here. One of the best pieces of form he has in the book came just two starts ago at Ascot. He finished second on that day behind Traffic Fluide, only losing by half a length. That horse has won three of his last four races, including at Grade Two and Grade Three level, so getting so close to him was a good achievement, and that came on good ground.

Looking further back, this time last year, Art Mauresque finished second behind Waiting Patiently, while in April he came second behind Top Notch, two very good horses who are now running in very good company.

Art Mauresque comes into this race off a handicap mark of 152, which is certainly one that he can win off when you look at his best form. That has come on good or good to soft ground, and that is exactly what we are going to get at Doncaster. The cold temperatures and frost have given us hard ground, and with no rain forecast it is going to remain that way.

Not only does the ground play to the strengths of Art Mauresque, but as we have seen all winter, not many horses act on it. That means it will inconvenience some of his rivals on Saturday, which makes the case for Art Mauresque even stronger.

This horse has more than likely been called some names in the past, and he doesn’t find it easy to win. However, despite that there is a lot in his favour this weekend in the SkyBet Chase, and plenty of reasons to back him. He is a nice price, generally around 8/1 for the race right now, and that could well contract as we edge closer and there are doubts over the ground for some of his rivals.

In the big handicap at Doncaster on Saturday, Art Mauresque is the pick to land another nice pot for trainer Paul Nicholls.