9th-May-2019

Lincoln Park is joint favourite, but he is 5/1 joint favourite, and I think that that is fair.  Michael Appleby’s horse has lots in his favour.  He was nicely progressive at the end of last season, he won nurseries at Pontefract and Haydock before disappointing on his final run of the season at Doncaster.

He was disappointing on his debut this season too at Newbury, but he shaped much better last time at Musselbrugh over a mile, when he led to the furlong pole before weakening inside the final furlong.

He is back over seven furlongs today, which is probably his optimum trip.  He is well drawn in stall three and, while he has never run at Chester, the track plays to his prominent style of racing.  He was dropped by 1lb for his Musselburgh run to a mark of 85, which was more than generous.  That is 4lb lower than his peak, and just 2lb higher than the mark off which he won at Haydock last September.  Also, he has Silvestre de Sousa back on board.  De Sousa is one for one on him, and he has a 22% strike rate for Michael Appleby.

LINCOLN PARK WON (ADV 5/1, SP 7/2)