Dashel Drasher steps up to the mark at Ascot

Big handicap success for progressive Jeremy Scott eight-year-old.

Dashel Drasher produced a tenacious performance to make every yard of the running and record a second Ascot triumph this season with victory in the bet365 Handicap Chase.

The Jeremy Scott-trained gelding jumped left at several of the fences, only to pull out extra under Matt Griffiths and hold Bennys King by a length and a quarter.

The 6-1 winner set what most observers thought might ultimately prove too frenetic a pace – but he came up for his pilot every time and those jumps enabled him to maintain a largely uncontested lead.

Griffiths said: “It’s massive for Jeremy to have such a nice horse on his hands. Owing to his lack of respect for the fences he wasn’t very good over them to start with, but he’s come good in a big way.

“I was more worried about what would happen over the first four fences, but he was going a gear quicker.

“He’s in the Sky Bet (Chase, at Doncaster), but whether he’ll go to Cheltenham, I don’t know, as he’s had a leg injury in the past. It’s funny he jumps left but has done more of his winning on right-handed courses, and I’m sure he’ll stay further.”

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