ROUGH QUEST, cursed with wretched luck this season, can enjoy a long overdue change of fortune in the £40,000 added Racing Post Handicap Chase at Kempton Park today.
Those who saw Terry Casey's bay leave his opponents trailing in the Ritz Club Chase at last year's Cheltenham Festival could hardly avoid the conclusion that here was a progressive steeple chaser, to be closely followed.
The way he swept nine lengths clear of Antonin while still having a firm grip of his bridle - marked him as a horse with a future, an impression borne out by his dismissal of a competitive field at the Punchestown Festival the following month.
This season, however, things have not gone to plan. Rough Quest was still travelling well when falling four from home in the Flowers Original Handicap Chase at Cheltenham on Mackeson Chase day and then was asked to make too much of the running in the Hennessy Gold Cup when a legless second to Couldn't Be Better in gluepot conditions at Newbury.
It seemed his luck had changed when he collared Unguided Missile at the final fence of the Betterware Cup at Ascot on his next outing, going much the better of the leading pair. However, Richard Dunwoody conjured a most unlikely looking resurgence from Gordon Richards's gelding and Rough Quest went under by a neck.
He was once again travelling well within himself when falling at the fourth last behind Royal Mountbrowne at Leopardstown on his latest start, and his seasonal record of no reward from four outings was complete.
From a rating of 149 now the same handicap mark which saw him finish second at Ascot - Rough Quest has an ideal opportunity to turn the tide. His finishing pace will stand him in good stead over Kempton's sharp three miles, and the ground likely to be on the fast side of good - will also suit him well, a comment which may not apply to David Nicholson's mudlover Percy Smollett.
Dunwoody takes the ride following the defection of Unguided Missile with a bruised foot, and the champion can steer Rough Quest to a well deserved first victor of the season.
Tim Easterby, just over three weeks into his new job as master of Habton Grange, can net the biggest success of his fledgling career with Scotton Banks in the Greenalls Grand National Trial at Haydock.
The seven year old has been expertly campaigned by Easterby's father Peter, who retired at the beginning of the month. Successful over course and distance in November, he has since won handicap chases at Doncaster and Wetherby before winning the Peter Marsh Chase at Haydock in January, rallying to beat Smith's Band by half a length after a bad mistake at the second last.
Still only seven, Scotton Banks is following an upward curve and, with conditions in his favour, is taken to defy a 6lb rise in the weights for his Peter Marsh success.
Marchant Ming, modest and arguably irresolute on the Flat, looks a different proposition over timber and can add the De Vere Hotels Victor Ludorum Novices' Hurdle to an emphatic win gained at Musselburgh last month.
