What is the fascination with Chester

No, that's Musselburgh.

Both pretty poor tracks I agree - silly configuration at Chester of course.

Top trainers have sent some top horses to Chester.
It can't be that poor.

Overated expensive dirth@le……

both chester & musselburgh have punting angles that have stood up long term

May 7, 2026 -- 6:13PM, penzance wrote:

Top trainers have sent some top horses to Chester.It can't be that poor.

yep...when the oaks & derby come around chester form is often (wrongly) dismissed

Moore said in his interview yesterday on ITV that it’s a good learning experience for the horses as they are surrounded by noise and though the track is different from Epsom it sorts out those who are balanced.
He mentioned that the Vase sees if they stay and last year he also mentioned the timing of the trials, said that when Whirl won at York that it came quick enough to Epsom.

AOB doesn’t use the Dante as our trainers do, maybe for those reasons? And they in turn avoid Chester and his horses knowing that.

Delashay • May 7, 2026 6:27 PM BST
Moore said in his interview yesterday on ITV that it’s a good learning experience for the horses as they are surrounded by noise and though the track is different from Epsom it sorts out those who are balanced.
He mentioned that the Vase sees if they stay and last year he also mentioned the timing of the trials, said that when Whirl won at York that it came quick enough to Epsom.

exactly this

Thanks Wonders

The new Constitution reminded me a lot of Whirl today and the race doesn’t have a great record for the Derby but I feel that he’s shuffled his pack this year.
The timing of it is perfect for him.

Delashay spot on. These are trials. Not run for punters. Though if you just backed Coolmore in all of them you'd be £ ahead. The simple fact is that nearly all of these Derby/Oaks trials test stamina, speed and (at Chester) adaptability to a different tight track. Coolmore win them because they have loads of horse bred to stay, in contrast to nearly everyone else. In days of yore you would have the Aga horses, Hern, Cecil etc who all had breeders who would be getting 10f/12f horses. Only Beckett does that these days (in numbers) but most of them are too slow. I love Chester but never expect to win. But I learn a lot.

OP just started following horse racing?

#walofs

The problem is Chester thinks it’s Ascot and its not . Officious guards everywhere , prices through the roof, viewing awful at lower levels now they have built infield, insistence on a tie for entry, hospitality guests who know nothing about racing but lots about free drinks. A private Tote that has laughable returns . I could go on.

Architect pub, nipping over the road to watch each race for free over the Roman Wall, is the way to do Chester.

I can't see the point of races where they don't all have an equal chance,
I don't watch it on TV tbh.

May 7, 2026 -- 6:27PM, Delashay wrote:

Moore said in his interview yesterday on ITV that it’s a good learning experience for the horses as they are surrounded by noise and though the track is different from Epsom it sorts out those who are balanced. He mentioned that the Vase sees if they stay and last year he also mentioned the timing of the trials, said that when Whirl won at York that it came quick enough to Epsom. AOB doesn’t use the Dante as our trainers do, maybe for those reasons? And they in turn avoid Chester and his horses knowing that.

I agree too. A mix of many things, including that extra week as well. People thing that's rubbish, it's only a week, but this are very young horses, and have to  be taken along steadily - not just for Epsom but the season to come.

May 8, 2026 -- 8:38AM, brians wrote:

The problem is Chester thinks it’s Ascot and its not . Officious guards everywhere , prices through the roof, viewing awful at lower levels now they have built infield, insistence on a tie for entry, hospitality guests who know nothing about racing but lots about free drinks. A private Tote that has laughable returns . I could go on.

And that's all correct too, but of much less concern for Ryan and AOB!!!

FAO brians...

Tote betting has returned to Chester Racecourse as of May 2026, ending a 12-year in-house ChesterBet operation. The partnership with the UK Tote Group now provides on-course pool betting.

For the record:  The first race of the meeting on Wednesday, the winner's SP was 100/30.

Pleasingly it paid £4.34 on the Tote!

A whole penny over and above what you'd expect.

I went once, couple of decades ago - purely because I had a brief employment in Lancashire at the time and several people there had a yearly Chester trip.

Can honestly say I can't remember actually seeing any race - I saw a few fleeting glimpse of horses careering past, then gone - and everyone asking who had won, after each race...awful prices (though I cared less back then) and flaming expensive everything I recall. Not been back since.

Pint of beer and a sausage roll yesterday £15-20p, £8-20P and £7-00. !!!

    Come Racing, No wonder they wanted the meeting on.!

By creating an hours delay by bad watering they sold more drinks !  ( tongue in cheek )
Thanks for the info top rated. ( still not going tho !)

Never been there but I always enjoy watching it on TV. Competitive racing on the whole and the Trials throw up top class horses every year.

You will see a lot more on tv m and be £60  richer!