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A Piece Of Heaven’s 7-1 success in the Chester Cup, the most popular and historic race of the year at the world’s oldest racecourse, was a fine way to round off the track’s May festival meeting on Friday, not least after a day when, for around an hour or so in early afternoon, the event had teetered on the edge of an expensive, embarrassing disaster.

The odds that the middle day of Chester’s showpiece event would be abandoned, with around 15,000 spectators at the track for Ladies’ Day, seemed to be shortening at 2.30pm on Thursday, as a delegation of jockeys and trainers inspected the turf on the home turn.

Several riders had reported slipping in the opening race, prompting emergency remedial work by Chester’s ground staff. A few minutes earlier, Maureen Haggas, assistant to her husband, William, at one of Newmarket’s biggest stables, had scratched Morshdi, the second-favourite, from the Dee Stakes, the day’s big Derby trial. Tom Marquand, the stable’s No 1 jockey, had reported the ground to be “dangerous”, Haggas said on ITV Racing, and had stood himself down for the rest of the day.

So it was a testament to the frantic efforts of the grounds team that, albeit more than an hour late, the remaining six races on the card eventually went into the form book. Marquand also revised his earlier decision and rode in the final two races.

An abandonment on Thursday would have been a huge blow, both financially and reputationally, to a venue that is still building back having lost its May festival to Covid in 2020 before running behind closed doors a year later. The total attendance for the May festival in 2019 was 53,000, but the four meetings since full crowds were restored in 2022 have averaged 34,500. That is a 34% decline, and 44% down on the 62,000 who crammed into the stands and infield just 15 years ago.

The crowds are coming back, albeit slowly. Louise Stewart, Chester’s chief executive, expects a rise of around 6% this year, building on a 10% boost in 2025, and was relieved on Friday that no refunds were necessary on Thursday.

“We’ve got a brilliant clerk [of the course, Eloise Quayle] and grounds team here at Chester, some of them have been here for over 45 years and their fathers before them,” Stewart said. “They know every blade of grass on the track and they know how to prepare ground for the May festival and how it runs. I think the delay was unprecedented and I’m really proud of what the team were able to deliver and proud of the response.”

If there was a positive to be taken from Thursday’s events, it was possibly the huge cheer from all corners of the track that greeted the announcement that racing would continue as planned. No one was hoping for a refund. “You heard the roar,” Stewart said. “People are here for the racing, and also for a good time, and Chester manages that balance really well.”

This is a course where the crowd and setting are integral to the experience – to a greater extent, perhaps, than at any other major track. The tight, turning course with a sharp descent to a short home straight, below Roman walls where hundreds watch for free, is simply unique, and officially dates to 1539, giving it the Guinness Book of Records seal of approval as the oldest still-operational racecourse on the planet.

As Stewart points out, changes to the course’s licensing, reducing the extent to which alcohol can be brought into the track’s centre enclosure by picnickers, have impacted on crowd numbers, while there is also an increased sale of “premium” tickets to offset the overall decline.

On the track itself, meanwhile, the May meeting’s trials for the Classics at Epsom next month have been performing brilliantly in recent years. The two Classic trials on Wednesday’s card – the Chester Vase and the Cheshire Oaks – completed a rare double in 2025 as the winners, Lambourn and Minnie Hauk, both followed up at Epsom.

There is a real chance that Chester will pull off the double once again, as Benvenuto Cellini, the Vase winner, and Amelia Earhart, who took the Cheshire Oaks, are now the clear favourites for the Derby and Oaks respectively. Constitution River’s seven-length win in Thursday’s Dee Stakes, meanwhile, was described by the much-respected Timeform organisation on Friday as “one of the very best performances in a Classic trial for many a year.”

All three horses are likely to be adverts for the May meeting’s trials as the rest of the Flat season unfolds, much as Minnie Hauk was in 2025 as she reeled off three Group One wins before finishing runner-up in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

“Great horses have been performing brilliantly on this track,” Stewart said. “That’s a great headline for racing and its future, it’s all about the horses and jockeys.”

Hickory ready to smoke opposition at Ascot

The high-numbered stalls are generally the place to be on the straight seven-furlong course at Ascot and there is also plenty of pace drawn mid-to-high in the Victoria Cup Handicap at Ascot on Saturday, which points towards another big run from Hickory (2.20) and Saffie Osborne, last year’s winners, from stall 17.

Hickory has a fine record at Ascot, with two wins and five more runs into the frame from nine starts on the straight course, and Osborne has been a key part of that form, both for his former trainer, James Fanshawe, and now her father, Jamie.

The eight-year-old is now on a career-high mark but he should get the tow into the race he needs from several high-drawn front-runners, and Osborne is a past-master at delivering him with a perfectly timed run.

Lingfield 12.55: Olivia Tubb is excellent value for her 5lb claim and that could tip the balance in favour of Sweet Reward after a promising return to action in a well-run race at Epsom last time.

Haydock 1.15: Fergal O’Brien’s Frontier Prince is an interesting each-way option in first-time cheekpieces after running a close fourth in a similar contest over track and trip last month.

Lingfield 1.28: Romantic Symphony is the only filly among the five runners for the Oaks Trial that is not currently entered for the Oaks at Epsom next month, but a supplementary may well be forthcoming if she extends her unbeaten record to three.

Ascot 1.45: The lightly raced Zgharta made her handicap debut over this track and trip at the Royal meeting last year and ran a fine race to finish within three-and-a-half lengths of the winner, form that gives her an obvious chance from just 1lb higher in the weights.

Lingfield 1.58: All six runners in the Derby Trial have an entry for the Epsom Classic and Maltese Cross could be the one to book his place in the field, as William Haggas’s stoutly bred colt needed every inch of the 10-furlong trip to win at Newbury last time.

Lingfield 2.40: Royal Velvet fully deserves this crack at a Group Three after posting a fresh career best in handicap company at Newmarket’s Craven meeting.

Ascot 2.55: John & Thady Gosden’s Valedictory was narrowly beaten at odds-on on his handicap debut over 10 furlongs at Newbury but showed more than enough to suggest this step up to a stiff mile-and-a-half will suit.

Lingfield 3.15: At least some of Apotheosis’s quirks have been ironed out by the application of a hood and was a winner at this track as a three-year-old.