Goffs Thyestes Handicap Chase – Gowran Park – Thursday 23rd January

The Goffs Thyestes Handicap Chase at Gowran Park at 2.48 on Thursday 23^rd January is a race with a rich history – invariably the domain of the classy second season chaser, potential Gold Cup type or sometime National prospect, it is a race that Willie Mullins always targets at a track only some 15km or so from his Closutton base.

This year looks no different, and the main stable hope is surely Nick Rockett who is available at 8/1 each-way with William Hill or 888Sport at this ante-post stage, just over a week out from the race.

Last year’s runner-up Glengouly, Spanish Harlem and the Scottish National winner Macdermott would all hold some sort of chance but following an excellent pipe-opener in the Paddy Power Handicap Chase at Leopardstown at Christmas, Nick Rockett has all the attributes and profile to be the ideal Thyestes type.

Sent off 4/1 favourite for the Irish National after just the three beginners chase runs last season, the ceiling for Nick Rockett as a staying chaser is very high. He could never quite lay a glove on those horses ridden a little bit more prominently or who navigated a slightly inner passage in the run, but he kept on galloping in the Easter showpiece and acquitted himself with real credit.

Very similar comments can be made about his bronze medal finish in the Bet365 Gold Cup at Sandown Park, when part of a British Trainer’s Championship lap of honour for the mighty Mullins.

Yes it’s true that he keeps inching up the handicap a pound or two with all these creditable runs, but that is outweighed by his rate of progression – particularly for a summer at grass, as his Leopardstown reappearance signified he has come back a top-notch prospect and given he was very weak in the betting that day, and will surely come on plenty for the run, the Thyestes has presumably always been his early season target.

At 8/1 each-way with William Hill or 888Sport for 4 places as things stand, I would be happy to take anything north of 11/2, Nick Rockett can fly the flag for his yard in this historic contest. A contest that is littered with winners from the yard, littered with classy types carrying near to top weight, and littered with horses ready to step into genuine Graded open company.

I was also very close to advising Yeah Man, for the rampant Gavin Cromwell stable, but for all that he was a massive eyecatcher on his reappearance run in the Troytown at Navan, I don’t feel that Gowran Park will be his ideal track.