'I've had this race in mind for him all season' - stellar field assembles for Peterborough Chase

The Peterborough Chase and 1965 Chase have plenty in common: two £80,000 pots on right-handed galloping tracks run at the same time of year. Yet the Huntingdon race has attracted a vastly superior field than Ascot managed 15 days ago.

Pic D'Orhy, a regular in this sort of Grade 2 and the Peterborough's previous winner in 2022, had only two handicappers to beat at Ascot (Flegmatik and Hidden Depths) and an 11-year-old running in a chase for the first time in nearly two seasons (Dashel Drasher).

Ginny's Destiny is presented with a far more robust challenge than his stablemate had in the 1965. Protektorat is a bona-fide Grade 1 performer and the notion he is the best horse Dan Skelton has trained is a fair one. Sarah Humphrey would doubtless give similar rank to her stable star Nickle Back, a brilliant winner of the Scilly Isles last season. 

Djelo is another fine second-season chaser who will be better suited by this intermediate trip after an encouraging second in the Haldon Gold Cup on his comeback. The fact Old Roan winner Minella Drama is deemed the outsider of five highlights the depth to this Peterborough Chase. 

On simple weights and measures, Ginny's Destiny should struggle against Protektorat. He fared markedly worse than Protektorat did when the pair met in the Paddy Power Gold Cup last time on more favourable terms.

The prospect of softer conditions at Huntingdon can be cited as a positive for Protektorat, who thrived on his racing last season after Skelton elected to campaign him differently. That proved an inspired decision.  

The strong pace Protektorat requires over this distance should be forthcoming with Ginny's Destiny, Minella Drama and Nickle Back having all set the fractions in recent times. If there is to be a ripple in the ante-post market for an increasingly depleted King George, perhaps Protektorat will spark it.  
Analysis by Robbie Wilders

'He's the leading horse on ratings'

Dan Skelton thinks his Ryanair Chase winner Protektorat will be hard to beat in the feature race of the season at Huntingdon.

The flagship meeting, which also includes a Listed mares' bumper, was lost to the weather a year ago and must pass an inspection at 8.30am on Sunday due to the continued threat of high winds and rain from Storm Darragh.

Owned by former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson in partnership with Ged Mason and John and Lisa Hales, Protektorat racked up his third win in Grade 1 company at Cheltenham in March

Skelton, who is chasing a second win in the Peterborough Chase after the success of Al Ferof in 2015, said: “The Peterborough Chase is a race I've had in mind for Protektorat all season. I wanted to get started with him earlier than the Paddy Power, but we couldn’t because of the ground.

“He now has that Paddy Power run under his belt and is the leading horse on ratings going into the race. He should be hard to beat.”

What they say

Venetia Williams, trainer of Djelo
It's a strong race, as you'd expect, and I hope he can be competitive. Any rain would be appreciated over a sharp track like this.

Paul Nicholls, trainer of Ginny’s Destiny 
I don't think he ran his race on his seasonal return at Cheltenham and don't know why. But he has come on for the run, just as he did last year, and needs soft ground, which he should get.

Sarah Humphrey, trainer of Nickle Back
We’ve had a terrible virus in the yard, so we’ve not had many runners, but the signs are we are coming through that now. We had hoped to bring him back at Ascot a fortnight ago, but he wasn’t ready for that, and I would say this is probably Plan D. He’s been up to Fakenham for a racecourse gallop and a school, which went well. This looks a nice starting point, although he will probably need it against all the others who have had a run.
Reporting by David Milnes

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