Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase Betting Tips, Winners & History

Next Race: TBD

The next renewal of this race has not been scheduled yet. We will update this once the schedule has been released for next season. The race info, trends and tips shown below will be updated for the next renewal once the final declarations have been made.

Scilly Isles Novices' Chase Betting Tips

Note: The following tips are from 2021. Tips for the next renewal will be added once the final declarations have been made.

Nicky Henderson tops the all-time trainers' table in this event with six wins in total, and an impressive four victories in the space of the last eight years. Bidding to making it a lucky seven for the Lambourn handler this year is the talented mare, Dame De Compagnie.

Open to all novice chasers aged five and older, youth has been favoured here of late, with seven of the past eight to come home in front being either five or six years of age. Applying that criteria to this year’s field would leave only the six year old Sporting John and five year old Hitman.

The favourites have a rock-solid strike rate in this event with five wins in the past 10 years. There have been a few short prices in amongst that lot, but supporters of the market leader would still have snuck into a profit of 95p to £1 level stakes over this period.

Shan Blue – 5/2

Just the seven go to post this year, but it’s a talented septet, and narrowing down the list is no straightforward task. Despite that recent trend towards the youngsters, it is the older performers who dominate this year’s field in terms of numbers, and overall we wouldn’t be too surprised were it to be a couple of those aged seven and above who are involved in the finish here. The market seems to agree with that assessment, as the first runner to catch our eye is the current favourite for the race, Dan Skelton’s four-time seeking gelding, Shan Blue.

Fairly talented as a hurdler – when good enough to finish sixth in the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival – it was always thought that this son of Shantou would be seen in an even better light over fences, and in three starts over the larger obstacles to date he has certainly delivered on that assessment.

Miles too good for the field when producing back to back demolition jobs in Class 4 events at Wetherby, Shan Blue then faced his acid test in the Grade 1 Kauto Star Novices’ Chase on the Boxing Day card at Kempton. Again doing all of his own donkey work, he powered away from the extremely highly regarded The Big Breakaway after the last that day to score by almost four lengths. The question mark does come with the fact that he will be stepping down in trip from 3m, but with the ground riding as it is, that proven stamina is a useful asset to have in his locker and, if able to get into a rhythm up front once again, he may well prove tough to stop.

Dame De Compagnie – 5/1

Sitting on a mark of 152 it is the aforementioned Shan Blue and Messire Des Obeaux who are the joint top-rated runners in the field. However, the one to back strictly from a ratings standpoint is Nicky Henderson’s Dame De Compagnie. Rated 148, but in receipt of seven pounds as the only mare in the field, she effectively has three pounds in hand on the figures. Things rarely work out exactly as the figures suggest they might, but this JP McManus owned runner does have a couple of other factors in her favour.

The first of which is, of course, her trainer's excellent record in the race – a 50% strike rate over the past eight seasons is certainly not to be sniffed at. This daughter of Lucarno’s form also stacks up pretty nicely too. Her excellent win in a fiercely run Coral Cup last season over 2m5f on soft ground at the Cheltenham Festival auguring well for her chances of seeing out this slightly shorter trip on heavy ground, particularly as it was only in the closing stages that she really began to assert her authority.

Of course, the Coral Cup takes place over hurdles, and whilst Dame De Compagnie will be making only her second chase start here, she could scarcely have been more impressive on her debut over the large obstacles at Ayr in January. She jumped with aplomb on her way to slamming the useful Cornerstone Lad by nine lengths that day. This is a big step up in class but she retains untapped potential in this sphere and rates a threat to all.