Silver Trophy Preview: The Mighty Celt Can Land The Chepstow Feature

The Wasdell Group Silver Trophy is the feature on Saturday's card at Chepstow and it looks a proper puzzle. Eighteen runners go to post at 4.02pm for £75,000, with the ground currently good to soft.

Masked Man was heading the betting at around 4/1 earlier in the week, but I am happy to take him on. I have gone for a four-year-old from the Dan Skelton yard who looks to have a big handicap in him.

This race has a habit of throwing up a decent-priced winner. Rambo T won it last year at 12/1, Josh The Boss was 11/1 in 2024 and Pyramid Place was a 20/1 shot the year before. Only three favourites have won it in the last 20 renewals, so I am not going to be put off taking on the one at the head of the market.

The market leader Masked Man is certainly one to respect. The five-year-old is lightly raced, won on his hurdling debut at Chepstow 12 months ago and was second in the Grade 2 Newton Novices' Hurdle at Haydock last season. He is rated 132 for Nigel and Willy Twiston-Davies, and Nigel has won this twice, so it would not surprise me to see him go close.

The problem for me is the price. His last run was a ninth in the Grade 1 Mersey Novices' Hurdle at Aintree, he is only five and 4/1 about him in an 18-runner handicap does not excite me at all.

THE MIGHTY CELT is my selection. The Skelton four-year-old is rated 131 and carries 10st 9lb, which looks a very workable weight in a race this competitive.

He is an ex-French horse who finished third in the Victor Ludorum at Haydock, then ran two good races in big-field handicaps at the spring festivals. At Cheltenham he was sixth in the Fred Winter. He was held up and met some trouble, and he can be keen. At Aintree he was left with plenty to do after clouting the first, but he settled in among a crowd and stayed on well to finish seventh.

I think the step up to two miles three furlongs will help him settle, and I like the way he has been placed so far. I think there is a big race in him and this looks the one.

The Skelton team have plenty of previous in this race too. Dan won it with Flash The Steel in 2019 and Harry Skelton has ridden two winners of it, more than any other jockey. Dan has three runners this year, with Take No Chances the top weight on 12st and Boombawn the other, but this is the one I like.

He is 13/2 at the time of writing and he was as big as 8/1 earlier in the week, which looks a fair price to me.

Of the rest, Wellington Arch is the one I respect most. Jonjo O'Neill's seven-year-old won at Aintree last time and is rated 144 now, which is 7lb higher, and that is a lot to ask of him back at this level.

Daylatedollarshort is another near the head of the market at around 7/1. Olly Murphy's five-year-old has been progressive and was second at the Punchestown Festival in the spring, but I am not convinced his form is quite strong enough for this, and he has been put up 5lb for it.

Olly Murphy won this last year with Rambo T, who is back to defend his crown, but he has plenty to prove on his recent form. Melon won last time out and is another five-year-old on the up at around 8/1, so he is one for the shortlist.

With eighteen runners and the market likely to move all the way to the off, check the each-way terms with your bookmaker before you have a bet. I am happy to take 13/2 about The Mighty Celt to win, and he looks a decent each-way play too if the terms are right.