Chester May Festival Day One Tips 2026: Billy Grimshaw’s Best Bets On The Roodee

The Chester May Festival gets under way on Wednesday afternoon and ITV Racing viewers are in for a proper treat, with Day One at the Roodee serving up two key Classic trials and all the usual draw, pace and positioning puzzles that make this place such a fascinating betting track.

Billy Grimshaw has taken a deep look through the opening-day card and picked out his best bets for one of the most distinctive meetings of the Flat season.

13:30 Chester - Lily Agnes Stakes

This is not a race to be putting your biggest bet of the afternoon down on, given the majority of these two year olds will still be learning the ropes and have hardly any form behind them, but WAIT GEORDIE is a very worthy favourite and can justify his 9/4 odds. Hugo Palmer a couple of seasons ago made the move up north to make Chester his local course and has a formidable record on the Roodee since taking residence with Michael Owen. Make no mistake, he wants winners at this meeting and in Wait Geordie, he has what looks the ideal type for this contest.

Watching back his win at Bath last time out on debut when a wire-to-wire winner, it would be easy to say he simply won the race from the gate by breaking more alertly than his rivals under David Probert and grabbing the rail while the rest jostled for position in behind him. However, watch the closing stages again and you'll see how easy a time Probert gave his mount in front, clearly giving him an educational ride but still having more than enough in the locker to claim glory at 9/1.

Oisin Murphy takes over for this race - never a bad thing - and with his draw in three he is nigh on perfectly placed to repeat his all the way win. Adonius has the plum draw in one and did make all to win last time out as well, after a very impressive 7 length debut win when a 12/1 chance, but he has to give five pounds to the favourite here and could find that tough. I expect the two market leaders to battle it out but Wait Geordie has the gate speed to grab the crucial rail spot again from anyone else battling for it and that could come in clutch. He had plenty in hand at Bath and I expect him to take another big step forward, as they all should in a race like this to be fair, and make it a perfect two from two.

15:05 Chester - Chester Vase

I'm looking forward to seeing I'm The One again in the Cheshire Oaks as she was stunningly impressive on debut and deserves to head the market for Epsom. However, she is not a betting proposition at 8/15 so we will skip that race for the Derby trial, the Chester Vase. Last year's winner of this race was Lambourn who of course went on to claim The Derby for Aidan O'Brien, extending his phenomenal record both in this race and in using this race as a prep for Epsom. Perhaps we should keep things simple and just back Benvenuto Cellini, considering he is the first string from the dominant yard, has the best form and is the antepost Derby favourite, then?

Perhaps that is what smart punters will do, but it's not what I am recommending. Trends have their purpose, of course, but taking each horse on their merit is crucial and given the form of the Futurity, where Benvenuto Cellini was last seen as a fast finishing third, has taken a few knocks since he was last sighted I think there is enough to take him on here. He may be odds-on by the time you are reading this with Water To Wine - the current second favourite - rumoured to be on the precipice of being pulled out by the Gosdens. That'll be a shame as the Kingman colt has looked very exciting, but I will also be taking him on if he runs as I don't think he'll get the trip.

Camelot colt DEL MARO represents the boys in blue with Charlie Appleby and William Buick and for all the price may be very different in the morning, at the time of writing he is 10/1 and that is a ludicrous price given his profile. This combination won the race with Hidden Law two seasons ago, albeit that was a tragic victory as the horse broke down fatally in the shadow of the winning post following his impressive win.

I do not think Del Maro is in that ill fated colt's league, but he may not have to be given the lack of pace on in here and his hold-up tactics. I expect the Ballydoyle plan is for Proposition to set it up for the favourite, however if Del Maro is still there or thereabouts and they haven't gone fast enough to shake everything off, I can see Buick nicking this. At 10/1 I am willing to pay to find out how good this lad is - or how bad a favourite the market leader is.