RACING:BRYAN COOPER will hope it is third time lucky on board Forpadydeplasterer when the partnership line up in Saturday's Grade One Victor Chandler Chase at Ascot.
The 19-year-old conditional champion jockey, son of trainer Tom Cooper, has ridden the former Cheltenham festival hero on his last two starts when Forpadydeplasterer ran fine races behind Big Zeb at Navan and Leopardstown.
Cooper Snr had been concerned his son might be claimed to ride at Naas on Saturday by his boss Dessie Hughes but the father-son team are now ready to tackle some of Britain’s top two-milers in the Victor Chandler.“It will be a tough task but everything is good with the horse right now,” Cooper added. Forpadydeplasterer is as high as 14 to 1 in ante-post betting for the Victor Chandler for which eight horses remain in contention.
They include Wishfull Thinking from the in-form Philip Hobbs yard and jockey Richard Johnson is hopeful of a big run from last season’s leading novice who was runner-up to Finian’s Rainbow on his last start.
“He finished second to Finian’s Rainbow and it was a good run and obviously a massive improvement on his first two runs of the season. I think the tactic again will be to switch him off early. Hopefully it will be a much faster run race,” he said yesterday.
