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 foe Jonbon as soon as again on Saturday as both featured among the 6 declarations for the Betfair Ascot Chase.


The duo have actually frequently taken on over 2 miles through their professions, but now do fight over a brand-new range, with Edwardstone arriving off the back of a heartfelt success in the Silviniaco Conti Chase at Kempton last month.


King stated: "The old young boy appears in great form. I would have preferred somewhat much better ground, however it is the method 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 lovely to see him get his head in front again. It gave myself and the whole group a substantial amount of pleasure.


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


Jonbon has won 2 Melling Chases over an intermediate journey and having actually needed every backyard of the minimum range when notching back-to-back Clarence House Chase triumphes at this track last time out, is reunited with Nico de Boinville at a place where he has a flawless record.


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


Edwardstone are Jonbon 12 and 10 respectively and they are taken part the line-up by another senior statesman, with Paul Nicholls' 11-year-old bidding to win the race for a record third time having taken home first prize for the last two seasons.


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