King Under No Illusions As Edwardstone Faces Old Foe Jonbon

Alan King is thrilled to continue Edwardstone's journey when he locks horns with old enemy Jonbon once again on Saturday as both featured among the 6 statements for the Betfair Ascot Chase.


The duo have actually regularly taken on over 2 miles through their professions, today do fight over a new range, with Edwardstone showing up off the back of a heartfelt success in the Silviniaco Conti Chase at Kempton last month.


King stated: "The old boy seems in good kind. I would have chosen slightly better ground, however it is the way it is and we'll see how he gets on.


"It was excellent to see him win at Kempton last time and his enthusiasm and work at home is almost as good as it has actually constantly been, it was charming to see him get his head in front again. It gave myself and the entire group a huge amount of pleasure.


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


Jonbon has actually won 2 Melling Chases over an intermediate trip and having actually required every yard of the minimum range when notching back-to-back Clarence House Chase success 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 taken home first prize for the last 2 seasons.


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