King Under No Illusions As Edwardstone Faces Old Foe Jonbon

is excited to continue Edwardstone's journey when he locks horns with old foe Jonbon when again on Saturday as both featured among the 6 statements for the Betfair Ascot Chase.


The duo have actually regularly faced off over two miles through their careers, and now do fight over a new range, with Edwardstone getting here off the back of a heartwarming success in the Silviniaco Conti Chase at Kempton last month.


King stated: "The old boy appears in excellent form. I would have preferred slightly better ground, however it is the way it is and we'll see how he gets on.


"It was great to see him win at Kempton last time and his enthusiasm and work at home is nearly as great as it has constantly been, it was lovely to see him get his head in front once again. It offered myself and the entire team a substantial quantity of satisfaction.


"There is a great deal of prize-money up for grabs and we'll see if we can select up a piece. We're under no illusions about handling the 2 big guns so we'll see how we get on."


Jonbon has won 2 Melling Chases over an intermediate journey and having actually required every yard of the minimum range when notching back-to-back Clarence House Chase success at this track last time out, is reunited with Nico de Boinville at a location 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 joined in the line-up by another elder statesman, with Paul Nicholls' 11-year-old Pic D'orhy bidding to win the race for a record 3rd time having taken home initially reward for the last two seasons.


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