Chester Thursday Tips: O'Brien set for another big day on the Roodee

The Chester May Festival continues on Thursday with Ladies Day on the Roodee. Billy Grimshaw has sifted through the cards and found two good bets for the ITV action including an each-way fancy at a decent price and an Aiden O'Brien favourite that should prove hard to beat.

In addition to five races from Chester, ITV Racing are showing the Huntingdon 1:45 giving armchair punters an exciting afternoon of racing across both the flat and jumps spheres.

13:30 Chester - CAA Stellar Handicap

Roman Dragon is sure to be popular in the market for this opener having won the contest from the same mark last year. Trained locally by Hugo Palmer he looks to have pinpointed this race as his season's target so we can perhaps take his early season form with a pinch of salt and expect him to be much better prepared for today's outing. Drawn in stall 3, he has plenty in his favour but at around 10/3 he looks a bit short in the market and there could be value in backing CANON'S HOUSE each-way at a much bigger price.

The Mick and David Easterby trained five year old is rated just 1lb higher than his last winning mark and appears to be in good form after finishing a head second to the evergreen Copper Knight at Beverley on Monday. That recent run may just help this free-going sort to settle better in this contest and, drawn in stall 5, he can race prominently without having to over exert himself to get an early position. With bookies paying four places, he looks a decent price to hit the frame at least.

15:05 Chester - Ladbrokes Ormonde Stakes

Aiden O'Brien has a fantastic record at Chester and he could easily land a big race double on Thursday via Constitution River in the Dee Stakes (14:35) and JAN BRUEGHEL in the Ormonde. At the prices, it's the latter which makes the most appeal with the 2024 St Leger winner available at around 6/4 versus the odds-on quotes about Constitution River. 

His main competition looks to be stablemate Illinois who finished just a neck behind the selection in that Doncaster classic and went on to win this same race last year ahead of the reoppossing Al Qareem. 

Ryan Moore has chosen to ride Jan Brueghel and - given he is now rated 9lb's superior to Illinois - it's not hard to see why. The Coronation Cup winner is the class horse in the race and he can take this en route to a return to Epsom to defend that Group 1 crown in June.