A hungry wolf against a well-fed lion? Keith Melrose tackles the Betfair Chase

It would be easy to bemoan the small fields endemic to the Betfair Chase. Standard each-way terms on the race would not have paid three places since 2014. Yet for a race seemingly so lacking, it has been quite difficult to solve.

How rare for a race that has four or five runners to provide only one odds-on shot in eight years. Bravemansgame admittedly could become the second in as many runnings. The market has had less trouble separating him and Protektorat than it did when A Plus Tard raced a ten-year-old Bristol De Mai in 2021, or when Cue Card met the long-absent Coneygree five years before that.

You could argue it shows a market threatening to make the same mistake it has made before. In 2018, Bristol De Mai was the defending champion who had come clear by a record 57 lengths the year before. He was sent off 13-2. He was also 9-4 when winning his third and final Betfair Chase in 2020. You could also wonder why in 2016 Cue Card returned at 15-8, when his main rivals were the missing-in-action Coneygree and Seeyouatmidnight.