IT has to be disappointing for Ascot that here we are, five weeks after the old Ladbroke Hurdle was run under the Wessex Youth Trust banner, set to witness the staging of the Clarence House Chase, to be run under the banner of another Ascot charity, the Berkshire Community Foundation.

It is four years since this afternoon’s event was known as the Victor Chandler Chase, Sodexo have owned it for the last three renewals, but it is still disappointing that a replacement sponsor could not have been found for a Grade 1 contest, one of the key stepping stones that take the two-mile chase programme from Christmas to the Tied Cottage Chase to the Game Spirit Chase to the Queen Mother Champion Chase.