KATATE Dori is the logical favourite for the Ladbrokes Trophy at Kempton this afternoon.

Okay, so he is 11lb higher than he was when he won the race last year, but he won by 15 lengths, he had the race in the bag from a long way out, and you can easily argue that he would have won it with another 11lb on his back. The handicapper raised him by 12.

He obviously goes well at the track, a track at which course form is important, on the chase track anyway for sure, right-handed and flat, where the fences come at you quickly.

His trainer’s horses have been in good form all season, and it is probable that this has been his target for a while. He may well go and win again.

The problem is that he is short, and that today’s race is shaping up to be a stronger race than last year’s renewal was.

The five horses who chased him home 12 months ago - only six horses finished the race - have raced, collectively, 16 times since, and the only victory that they have been able to muster between them was Guard Your Dreams’ win in a veterans’ handicap chase at Warwick two weeks ago.

Pulled up in the Ultima Chase at the Cheltenham Festival on his only subsequent run last season, Katate Dori started off this season in the Pertemps qualifier that Impose Toi won at Aintree in November, which you can obviously easily allow him, especially given that the two flights of hurdles in the home straight were omitted because of the low sun.

Main sufferers

You can also allow him his run in the Coral Gold Cup, when he was one of the main sufferers at the standing start, and in which he was always playing catch-up in a race that was run to suit the prominent racers. And last time, he was only just beaten by Herakles Westwood in a handicap chase at Cheltenham on New Year’s Day.

That race fell apart a little. Shannon Royale raced lazily and Excello fell and hampered Jasmin De Grugy, who fell himself later, and Does He Know also fell. It may not have been as strong a race in the end as it looked like it might have been at the start.

He is a player in today’s race of course, but he is popular and he is fashionable and the value may lie beyond him.

Kdeux Saint Fray is worthy of another chance, now that he is stepping up in trip to three miles. We had Anthony Honeyball’s horse on side when he finished fourth behind his stable companion Jordans Cross in the Timeform Novices’ Handicap Chase at Cheltenham on Trials’ Day, but he can be marked up at least a little on the bare form of the run.

He was back in the field off a sedate pace that day, and he didn’t have a lot of racing room along the inside at varying stages of the race.

No better than seventh of the nine runners when the sprint for home started off the home turn, the first two got away from him as they quickened off the front, but he stayed on well up the hill to take fourth place. He was second fastest through the final four furlongs, just 0.28 secs slower than the winner.

That race is usually a really good pointer to the future, and the Masked Marvel gelding shaped there - and not for the first time - as if he would appreciate a step up in trip.

The handicapper raised him by just 1lb for that run to a mark of 129, and that mark should be well within range. A six-year-old who has raced just four times over fences, and just eight times under rules, he has plenty of potential for further progression, and the magnitude of that progression could be amplified by the step up in distance.

Eider Chase

Earlier in the day, Dom Of Mary could go well in the Virgin Bet Eider Chase at Newcastle.

Winner of the Sussex National at Plumpton in 2024 over an extended three and a half miles, and second in that race last season, James Owen’s horse proved that he could operate at Newcastle when he won a handicap chase run over three miles and six furlongs there in November off a mark of 124. That is his only run to date at the track. He is one for one there.

He was probably a fortuitous winner, Zertakt looked set for victory before he got in tight to the final fence and lost momentum, but Dom Of Mary stayed on well to get the better of him on the run-in, and he extended his advantage all the way to the line. And Zertakt enhanced that form when he won a novices’ handicap chase at Cheltenham’s December meeting next time off a 2lb-higher mark. He is now rated 8lb higher than he was at Newcastle.

Dom Of Mary is now just 4lb higher, and that looks very fair. He ran in the Welsh National since that victory at Newcastle, when he stayed on well on ground that should have been faster than ideal to take sixth place behind Gold Cup aspirant Haiti Couleurs. The handicapper dropped him by 1lb for that, which was a bonus.

He should be happier today back on easier ground and back at Newcastle, and there is every chance that the step up to this extreme trip will suit him well.

Recommended:

Dom Of Mary, 2.43 Newcastle, 7/1 (generally), 1 point win

Kdeux Saint Fray, 3.35 Kempton, 6/1 (generally), 1 point win