How might superstar A Plus Tard handle the most testing Betfair Chase in years?

Present a series of short-priced favourites for the big Saturday prizes early in the week and punters will inevitably start trying to get them beat. That seems the most plausible explanation for the murmurings of negativity around A Plus Tard, who won last year's Betfair Chase by 22 lengths and the Cheltenham Gold Cup by 15 lengths on his most recent start.

The going has been the subject of most of the disquiet, as officially A Plus Tard has not won on soft or heavy ground since 2019. While strictly true, this does not really wash with those who remember A Plus Tard's first run over 3m.

The ground was described as yielding on the chase course for the Savills Chase in 2020, in the same way that I could be described as weighing ten stone. The time recorded by A Plus Tard in wearing down Kemboy is the slowest winning time in the Savills since Don Poli plodded to victory in heavy ground in 2015. The other chase on the card, a maiden won by The Big Getaway, also produced comfortably the slowest time in that race since it was increased in distance to 2m5f. Topspeed called the ground heavy, Timeform went with soft.