Chester Racing Tips - Wednesday 7th May 2025

13:30 – Chester

The Lily Agnes Stakes is a fun way to start the Chester meeting with 2-year-olds flying around the roodee and it would be no surprise if Ali Shuffle obliges favouritism to start the meeting. She is 2 wins from 2 starts and looks a bundle of speed, stall one could prove very useful (or deadly with a bad break) but I can let her win at even money.

14:05 – Chester

We go again over the 5f trip here for this and I found this very tricky with almost half of the runners making their seasonal debut and most of the others coming off runs on the all-weather. There are plenty of races to come and I am happy to skip this one.

14:35 – Chester

The Cheshire Oaks has been a race won by horses at the top of the market in recent years, with 8 of the the last 9 winners since 2015 being sub 3/1 – 7/1 being the outlier in that period.

Aidan O’Brien has won 5 of the last 9 renewals and has the favourite here with Minnie Hauk probably by default. I would prefer That’s Amore for Ralph Beckett over that rival after her impressive Newbury win last season.

However, I am willing to take a chance on QUEEN OF THIEVES for John Gosden who won this with Enable in 2017 and Mehdaayih in 2019. She was an easy winner at Yarmouth last time out. She relished the step up in trip and is the only horse proven at this trip. Kieran Shoemark made all that day, and I think he could do that again today – making use of her fitness edge over main market rivals and knowing stamina is assured.

She is open to more improvement and at anything of odds of 4/1 or over she looks worth a bet.

QUEEN OF THIEVES 6/1 1PT WIN

15:05 – Chester

Aidan O’Brien tops the market again here in a race he dominates, again winning 5 of the last 9 renewals. He runs Lambourn who was a good 2nd to Delacroix in the Ballysax on seasonal return. He shaped like a stayer that day and it would be no surprise to see him improve and win this.

It is not a betting race for me and I am happy to watch with a view to the future.

15:40 – Chester

The market opened with Bob Mali and Hammer The Hammer put in as joint favourites and that looked quite reasonable with both having obvious chances in this sprint.

Since then Bob Mali has gone in to around 7/4 whereas HAMMER THE HAMMER is out to 7/2. That is way too big of a price differential and I am happy to side with Kevin Ryan’s colt to defy a 6lb penalty for his Southwell romp (he is 7lb well in today for that).

He does have stall 10 to deal with but he doesn’t need to lead but hopefully Ton Eaves can break well and be handy enough to try and negate that draw. I think he is a sprinter clearly on the up and make him a strong fancy at the odds.

HAMMER THE HAMMER 7/2 2PT WIN