Chester Cup favourite Austrian School may be rerouted to York instead

SportPesa Chester Cup favourite Austrian School is now 5lb well in at the weights following an 8lb rise for his impressive Queen's Cup win at Musselburgh, although connections have not ruled out going for the Matchbook Yorkshire Cup instead.

Ladbrokes are biggest at 7-1 about the Mark Johnston-trained son of Teofilo, who improved an official 23lb last year and on Saturday posted a career-best Racing Post Rating of 114 for his six-length win at Musselburgh.

Austrian School earned just a 3lb penalty on his old rating of 102 to take his weight to 9st 4lb for Chester on May 10 and assistant trainer Charlie Johnston said: "He is 5lb well in for the Chester Cup so that is attractive. But his new rating would justify his position in the Yorkshire Cup if such as Stradivarius and Capri did not go for that Group 2."

The other consideration is the race distances as the York race is over a mile and three-quarters, half a mile shorter than the Chester Cup trip.

Johnston added: "He had plenty of form over two miles last year and I'm confident he will stay the longer trip at Chester but he is certainly not a slow horse and there are a lot of options for him this year between a mile and six and two miles."

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