Five horses to watch out for at Tuesday valuable fixture

There is £153,000 in prize-money on offer across Chelmsford's seven races on Tuesday, headlined by two £50,000 handicaps. Here, Peter Scargill pinpoints five runners to note...

Having fallen just short of landing a major blow in big three-year-old handicaps at Royal Ascot and Newmarket’s July meeting, Leshlaa takes on older horses for the first time.

His chances appear to have taken a blow with a draw in stall 15 of 16, but Chelmsford is proving to be a place where a wide draw can be overcome.

It is also worth bearing in mind trainer Saeed Bin Suroor has a 36 per cent strike-rate with runners at Chelmsford (50 per cent this season).

Suroor said: “Leshlaa is doing good. He worked well in his final piece for this race and he’s improving physically all the time. He’s ready to go again now.”

The unbeaten Golden Goal represents Bin Suroor in the 7f three-year-old handicap (8.10), and the trainer added: “He’s an improving horse and I’ve always liked him. He'd been a bit weak and immature but he’s been doing good.”

It would be unfair to say a horse who has won half his races is underperforming, but there is a strong sense there is more to come from Murad Khan.

A hat-trick last season included a defeat of this year’s John Smith’s Cup winner Ballet Concerto, while he responded well to a first-time hood to win at Windsor two starts ago.

However, he failed to land a blow in the rough opening race at Glorious Goodwood a couple of weeks ago and is dropped back to a mile from ten furlongs in a bid to find extra.

His trainer Hugo Palmer said: “We still think he’s an improving horse and he won his maiden at Chelmsford, so the track holds no fears.

“He has a nice draw and we think he can resume his progress after not getting the rub of the green or being comfortable on the track at Goodwood.”

The winner El Astronaute (Jason Hart,right) leads round the bend in the 5f handicapChester 10.5.17 Pic: Edward WhitakerCredit: Edward Whitaker

Punters were on their knees by the time El Astronaute struck towards the end of day one at Glorious Goodwood, with bookmaker-friendly results raining in.

El Astronaute added to that with his 33-1 short-head success in the 5f handicap and he aims to build on that on his all-weather debut.

Trainer John Quinn said: “He came out of his last race really well. He’s in very good form and his draw in three should suit his [prominent] style of racing.

“I’m keen to run him on the all-weather and he seems to handle it at home. It would open up a lot more options and there are some good prizes to go for on the surface.”

Horses who have performed well at Chelmsford before tend to have a decent advantage, so Mazzini’s rivals should be worried.

On his last start the four-year-old pinged the stalls and his rivals never got close to him as he won by a heavily eased four and a half lengths in first-time cheekpieces.

He will need to be quick again as he drops down to the minimum distance for the first time, and trainer James Fanshawe said: “He won well over six furlongs from a good draw last time. He's down in trip and in a stronger race, plus he's up 10lb in the handicap, but it was an impressive win."