Eider Chase Tips, Offers and Free Bets

Eider Handicap Chase Preview: Tips, Betting Offers and Odds

As we leave winter and head into the big spring festivals, the North East track of Newcastle plays host to one of the most demanding chases of the whole season. Here we take a look at the best odds and racing offers and provide our betting tips for the stamina-sapping Eider Chase.

This 4m 1/2f staying handicap chase was first run at Newcastle Racecourse in 1952 and features 25 stiff fences throughout its running. Open to chasers aged five and older, the contest now offers a total of £80,000 in total prize money.

With Cheltenham Festival betting really hotting up, this gives you another chance to take a look at the form lines. In truth this one is much more of an indicator for the Grand National later in the year.

Eider Handicap Chase Tips and Betting Offers, 3:35, 22nd February 2020

There aren’t many bigger tests of stamina in all of horse racing than the Eider Chase. This marathon contest takes place over 4 miles 1½ furlongs and given its place in the schedule, is usually run on heavy ground. That’s the case this year thanks to the effects of weeks of heavy rain in the area so any horse who even finishes the race will rightly earn the right to be considered for a crack at the Grand National.

Calipso Collonges to Go On and On

It goes without saying that any horse without proven stamina should be written off in terms of having a chance of winning the Eider Chase. This is a race for dour, reliable stayers who are able to go keep something in the tank as they go around the course before holding off the competition in the run to the post.

Reliable jumping is also a very important attribute. When horses get tired they can easily make a mistake going over a fence and the nature of jumping on heavy ground is in itself very physically demanding.

The trainers of every horse in the field will be keen to see how their charges stand up to this challenge but Olly Murphy has the right to feel more confident than most. He has seen time and time again – both at home and on the racecourse – that his run in the Eider Chase, Calipso Collonges, has all the stamina in the world.

With no run since finishing second in the Tommy Whittle handicap in December, it seems as though Murphy has been targeting the Eider Chase. The handicapper has probably been fair in raising Calipso Collonges 3lb for that run given that he was 7 lengths ahead of Vintage Clouds so it’s all systems go for a big run at Newcastle.

Time for Donna’s Delight to Live Up to Early Hopes

Sometimes it is just obvious that a horse is going to be better over fences than over hurdles. Connections of Donna’s Delight knew from early on that their gelding would likely be a better performer as a chaser due, largely, to his impressively big frame.

Connections were, however, frustrated that he was unable to make more of his undoubted promise with nothing really to write home about in his first six runs over fences. His win in a handicap at Ayr last month has helped to remove some of that frustration and renewed hopes that he will now be able to kick on.

That win came just six weeks after wind surgery so Donna’s Delight is entitled to improve further. He is just the sort of dour stayer that you would want on your side in the Eider Chase and is definitely one to keep an eye on.

Betting Predictions

The Eider Chase is rarely a race in which punters should have just one string to their bow. Thankfully, there are two horses who really stand out in the betting for the 2020 running. Calipso Collonges is the more proven of that pair so is the one to back for the win at 6/1 with Coral whilst Donna’s Delight ticks the box for an each way bet at 10/1 with bet365.

Previous Winners, Trainers and Jockeys

• 2019 – Crosspark – jockey Jamie Moore, trainer Caroline Bailey
• 2018 – Bay Wing – jockey Ryan Day, trainer Nicky Richards
• 2017 – Mysteree – jockey Robbie Dunne, trainer Michael Scudamore
• 2016 – Rocking Blues – jockey Lorcan Murtagh, trainer Rose Dobbin
• 2015 – Milborough – jockey Graham Watters, trainer Ian Duncan
• 2014 – Wyck Hill – jockey Tom Scudamore, trainer David Bridgewater
• 2013 – Abandoned
• 2012 – Portrait King – jockey Denis O’Regan, trainer Maurice Phelan
• 2011 – Companero – jockey Peter Buchanen, trainer Howard Johnson
• 2010 – Abandoned
• 2009 – Merigo – jockey Timmy Murphy, trainer Alan Parker
• 2008 – Comply Or Die – jockey Timmy Murphy, trainer David Pipe
• 2007 – Nil Desperandum – jockey Tom Scudamore, trainer Venetia Williams

Eider Handicap Chase History

Building in popularity ever since its inaugural edition, this marathon event, together with the Fighting Fifth Hurdle, is one of the two major National Hunt contests held at Newcastle each season. Always a popular betting heat, the extreme distance and regular sloppy conditions act to make this a rather unique mud-spattered spectacle.

The weather in the North East in February invariably provides a fair dose of snow, rain and frost. Such conditions have led to this contest being abandoned on no fewer than 20 occasions over the years.

Always a severe test of a horse’s stamina, the 2011 edition of this contest was surely one of the most demanding races run in recent memory. 12 went to post but in what was bottomless ground, only three made it to the finish line. Companero just about climbed over the last fence to claim a heroic victory.

A handful of trainers have recorded a dual success in the race over the years but it is Toby Balding who leads the way. One of a select band of trainers to land the treble of the Grand National, Cheltenham Gold Cup (take a look at our Gold Cup offers feature) and Champion Hurdle, he took this prize four times between the years of 1966 and 1984.

Highland Wedding

Toby Balding’s haul was in fact largely down to one horse. The tough as teak stayer Highland Wedding, who with three wins between 1966 and 1969 stands alone as the most successful horse in the history of the race. The 12st carried by the horse in that 1969 edition is also the top weight carrying performance in the race to date. 1969 proved to be something of a golden year for Highland Wedding as he also took that year’s Grand National. Wyndburgh (1957 and 1958) is the only other runner to land the Eider more than once.

Due to its severely demanding nature, this contest has remained the preferred Grand National preparation for a number of trainers in more modern times. David Pipe’s Comply Or Die famously followed up success here in 2008 with a win in the big one at Aintree.

Amongst the ranks of the jockeys, David Munro, Mattie Batchelor, Owen McNally, Peter Niven, Timmy Murphy and Tom Scudamore have recorded two wins apiece, but as of 2017, no one has yet managed three.