King Under No Illusions As Edwardstone Faces Old Foe Jonbon

Alan King is delighted to continue Edwardstone's journey when he locks horns with old foe Jonbon when again on Saturday as both included amongst the 6 declarations for the Betfair Ascot Chase.


The duo have actually regularly taken on over two miles through their careers, today do battle over a new distance, with showing up off the back of a heartfelt success in the Silviniaco Conti Chase at Kempton last month.


King said: "The old boy seems in great type. I would have preferred somewhat much better ground, however it is the way it is and we'll see how he gets on.


"It was fantastic to see him win at Kempton last time and his interest and work at home is nearly as excellent as it has constantly been, it was beautiful to see him get his head in front once again. It gave myself and the entire group a substantial quantity of satisfaction.


"There is a great deal of prize-money up for grabs and we'll see if we can choose up a piece. We're under no impressions about taking on the 2 huge guns so we'll see how we get on."


Jonbon has actually won two Melling Chases over an intermediate journey and requiring every backyard of the minimum range when notching back-to-back Clarence House Chase victories at this track last time out, is reunited with Nico de Boinville at a location where he has an impressive record.


Edwardstone rolled back the years at Kempton (Steven Paston/PA)


Edwardstone are Jonbon 12 and 10 respectively and they are joined in the line-up by another elder statesman, with Paul Nicholls' 11-year-old Pic D'orhy bidding to win the race for a record 3rd time having actually taken home initially prize for the last 2 seasons.


Dan Skelton runs Heltenham, with stablemates Etalon and Riskintheground missing out on out, with Jennie Candlish's Classic Maestro and Blow Your Wad on launching for Gary and Josh Moore finishing the line-up.