Tim Walford is aiming to continue a remarkable sequence of winners for the Chasing Gold Racing Club

Violin Davis: Runs at Newbury

Trainer Tim Walford is aiming to continue a remarkable sequence of winners for the Chasing Gold Racing Club as Fentara contests a fairly long-term target in the EBF/TBA Mares' Novices' Chase Finale at Newbury on Saturday.

Chasing Gold's yellow and black silks have been seen in the winner's enclosure with regularity over the last couple of months through Jumps Road, Greywell Boy and Mibleu.

Kept closer to her Sheriff Hutton stable so far this season, Fentara needed three tries before getting off the mark over fences at Kelso.

She was then a most respectable third in the Grade Two Towton Novices' Chase at Wetherby. The winner that day was Goulanes, while second was last week's narrow Kim Muir runner-up Super Duty.

"The last five Chasing Gold runners have all won, so we're under pressure," said Walford.

"We had her entered at Cheltenham but weren't sure she'd get home in the four-miler and weren't sure she could win the Kim Muir.

"We had this in mind and her form looks quite solid now. You need to be in good form for a race like this, and she is. I think she goes there with as good a chance as any."

Anthony Honeyball is lucky to have two good chances with Jackies Solitaire and Marie Des Anges.

The former was well beaten by Violin Davis at the course in January and would not have carried much confidence until she bolted up at Warwick earlier this month.

"We were never quite sure if Jackies Solitaire stayer further than two miles, but although she was an odds-on favourite in a small race at Warwick, I was really impressed with how she stayed on in what was horrible ground," said the Dorset trainer.

"That buoys us with confidence for this race and it's worth going for such a good prize."

Marie Des Anges has struck up a useful partnership with Charlie Huxley, scoring at Wetherby and then in a little handicap at this course earlier in the month. "This is her Gold Cup, really," Honeyball said.

"She got two miles and four at Wetherby and she will absolutely love the ground. She's still only got a light weight and has only gone up 5lb for her wins. I'm really looking forward to the pair of them."

Violin Davis has been well placed by Harry Fry to land mares' novice chases at Newbury, Bangor and Plumpton but the Dorset trainer would not want the ground to be too testing.

"She's in good order and this has been the target all season," Fry told his Stan James blog.

"The only thing I would say is the ground would be a big question mark. Her form is on better ground so, with the weather as it is, that would be a concern for me.

"She will be taking her chance as it's been the target all year and hopefully she can tough it out and emerge the best horse on the day."

Tom Symonds has managed to coax two races out of Valmari, but she is prone to jumping blunders and is given one final roll of the dice after she was tailed off in the National Spirit Hurdle at Fontwell.

"When she's good, she's very good, and when she's bad she's awful," Symonds said.

"I had retired her after her run in the National Spirit, where the track didn't suit, but she's in better form now.

"The way she led them at the course at the Hennessy meeting before tipping up, if she could run like that she would have a real chance of getting in the first three. That would be perfect, as then she can go to stud."

Alan King is pleased to give Urgence D'Estruval the chance to shine after she was denied a run at the Cheltenham Festival last week.

"Urgence D'Estrival was balloted out at Cheltenham, so the Novice Chase Final was the logical place to come," the Barbury Castle trainer told www.alankingracing.co.uk.

"She has run three times for us, giving encouragement each time, but, while I feel she is on a fair enough mark, the trip could be on the stiff side for her."