Sangster piles on the praise for Chester's carpet

While Chester's going was praised by Robert Sangster, the part owner of High Baroque was scathing about ground conditions at Newmarket.

"Nick Lees [Newmarket's clerk] should come to Chester and look at the ground. It is superb, like a carpet," Sangster said. "I'm running 16 in the North and had nothing at Newmarket and the ground is the main reason. We jarred a lot of horses up at the Craven meeting. Very few horses have run well since that meeting."

The ground also provoked discontent at Newton Abbot yesterday where Nicky Henderson said: "It's firm and then you take three strides and you fall in a hole where it's almost bottomless." Henrietta Knight described it as: "The worst ground we've seen all season. It's very rough and bare down the far side and the home straight is firm with boggy patches."