Rhys Williams' Thursday Racing Tips: Ideal chance for Birchdale to show his best

Far more suitable test in this sphere

Worcester 13:00: Birchdale 1pt win 13/8

Eglantine Du Seuil and Birchdale are joint favourites for the novices' chase that kicks off Worcester's card but I think the latter should have sole possession of that market position ahead of the mare.

Eglantine Du Seuil frequently ran well over hurdles last season while failing to win and she was beaten odds-on favourite on chasing debut at Fontwell. It might have been that the trip was a touch on the sharp side for her but her jumping concerned me with today's test in mind.

Not only was she a bit hesitant into the obstacles early on but as the race progressed she began to jump more and more to the right, which would clearly be a negative if she was to repeat that on this left-handed track. She also made mistakes late on when challenged by Chapmanshype and there's a concern that her jumping could let her down again taking on a rival of similar quality to the one she faced at Fontwell.

Birchdale has yet to win in three starts over fences and has been beaten 32 and 39 lengths when completing in this sphere but there are obvious reasons for that. On chasing debut at Ascot, he was given a patient ride and found that test too sharp and the class too hot when taking on Angels Breath and First Flow and he wasn't given a hard time once he had no chance of catching them.

On his first start of last season at Catterick, he was a very short price to beat four rivals but unseated at the second last in the back on the final circuit. Having jumped to the front at the previous fence, his rider seemed focused on making sure he didn't go on into a clear lead and then Birchdale got in too close to the next and left him with no chance of staying on board.

Following that he was puzzlingly dropped back to race over 2m½f on heavy ground at Newbury which looked a completely unsuitable test and that duly proved to be the case as he could never get into contention and came home last of the six runners.

Since then, Birchdale has shown that he still has plenty of ability when finishing sixth off 144 in the Coral Cup despite being poorly positioned given the pace of the race and not getting a clear run on a couple of occasions.

The near 3m trip and good ground today should give Birchdale the opportunity to show his true ability over fences and, with concerns over Eglantine Du Seuil's jumping, I think he might have a bit too much class for her and his other three rivals so any 11/8 or bigger appeals.