Horse Racing Preview: David Pipe looks at his chances this weekend

WHAT a strange week we have had with the whole equine influenza saga. I’m glad that common sense has prevailed, and we are now back racing.

We vaccinated all of ours last month and routinely take temperatures twice a day, so it hasn’t really affected us much.

All our staff have been taking extra care and have been provided with antibacterial hand wash, so it’s all systems go.

It was pleasing that when racing did finally continue on Wednesday that we hit the ground running with Duc De Beauchene winning at Plumpton.

Looking at today’s action and RATHLIN ROSE defends his crown in the Royal Artillery Gold Cup (3.00pm) at Sandown with Guy Disney back in the saddle.

He gets on particularly well with the horse and they must have a decent chance, although I don’t want the ground to dry out too much.

Looking at tomorrow’s racing and the plan is to run both RAMSES DE TEILLEE and VIEUX LION ROUGE in the Grand National Trial (3.35pm) at Haydock with DAKLONDIKE waiting for next Saturday’s Eider Chase at Newcastle.

Both of the Haydock contenders ran in the Welsh Grand National and seem in great form at home.

Ramses De Teillee loves soft ground so hopefully it won’t dry out too much. He’s gone up 5lbs for his Chepstow efforts but must have a big chance.

As for Vieux Lion Rouge, he just did too much last time in blinkers so we will revert to the sheepskin sidepieces and hope he can reproduce his Becher Chase form before a tilt at the Grand National itself.

CHAMPERS ON ICE could return to action for the first time since December 2017 in the Pertemps qualifier (2.55pm) also at Haydock tomorrow.

He is a decent performer on his day and it will be great to get him back on course after such a long layoff.

Over at Ascot and NORDIC COMBINED looks set to take his chance in tomorrow's rescheduled Betfair Hurdle (3.20pm).

He is a quirky novice who should relish the strong pace and soft ground, so I'm hoping he'll go a lot better than his odds suggest.

I’m really excited to be launching a new City syndicate in the coming weeks and look forward to telling you all about it.

It means that you can soon be a part of our team rather than just reading about it.