King under no illusions as Edwardstone faces old foe Jonbon

Alan King is excited to continue Edwardstone’s journey when he locks horns with old foe Jonbon once again on Saturday as both featured among the six declarations for the Betfair Ascot Chase.

The duo have regularly faced off over two miles through their careers, but now do battle over a new distance, with Edwardstone arriving off the back of a heartwarming success in the Silviniaco Conti Chase at Kempton last month.

King said: “The old boy seems in good form. I would have preferred slightly better ground, but it is the way it is and we’ll see how he gets on.

“It was terrific to see him win at Kempton last time and his enthusiasm and work at home is nearly as good as it has always been, it was lovely to see him get his head in front again. It gave myself and the whole team a huge amount of pleasure.

“There is a lot of prize-money up for grabs and we’ll see if we can pick up a piece. We’re under no illusions about taking on the two big guns so we’ll see how we get on.”

Jonbon has won two Melling Chases over an intermediate trip and having needed every yard of the minimum distance when notching back-to-back Clarence House Chase victories at this track last time out, is reunited with Nico de Boinville at a venue where he has an impeccable record.

Edwardstone are Jonbon 12 and 10 respectively and they are joined in the line-up by another elder statesman, with Paul Nicholls’ 11-year-old Pic D’orhy bidding to win the race for a record third time having taken home first prize for the last two seasons.

Dan Skelton runs Heltenham, with stablemates Etalon and Riskintheground missing out, with Jennie Candlish’s Classic Maestro and Blow Your Wad on debut for Gary and Josh Moore completing the line-up.