Old Roan Chase Predictions & Betting Tips (2025)

The new Jump season cranks up a notch at Aintree this Sunday with a seven-race card taking place on Merseyside. 

The afternoon is headlined by the £80,000 William Hill Old Roan Limited Handicap Chase over two and a half miles.

William Hill Old Roan Chase Odds:

Punters can bet on one of the big horse racing betting events of the weekend at William Hill and here is the current state of the Old Roan market:

• Imperial Saint – 9/4
• Master Chewy – 4/1
• Boombawn – 5/1
• Hitman – 6/1
• Minella Drama – 7/1
• Colonel Harry – 8/1
• Scarface – 10/1
• Ahoy Senor – 10/1
• Heltenham – 33/1
• Knockanore – 50/1

There are ten entries for the Grade 2 contest, with our early betting market making Imperial Saint the 9-4 outright favourite.

The seven-year-old has won three of his four starts at Aintree, including at this fixture a year ago, and showed tremendous improvement throughout last season, rising rapidly up the ratings to finish on a mark of 144.

Last year’s contest was won by Minella Drama, who is a 7-1 chance with us to become the first back-to-back winner since Monet’s Garden completed the feat in 2009 and 2010.

Third behind Minella Drama in 2024 was Ahoy Senor. The now ten-year-old veteran is a dual Grade One winner at Aintree, having taken the 2021 Sefton Novices’ Hurdle and the 2022 Mildmay Novices’ Chase. He is set to carry top-weight of 11st 12lb in Sunday’s renewal.

After his third place finish a year ago, last season proved to be a frustrating one for Ahoy Senor and he was last seen out when fifth behind Gaelic Warrior in the Grade One Bowl Chase at the Randox Grand National Festival in April.

Master Chewy represents the Nigel and Willy Twiston-Davies yard that took this race in 2008.

Both the horse, and the training family, are proven course winners at Aintree, so will  be confident their eight-year-old can do himself justice first time out.

If Dan Skelton is to have any realistic chance of winning this year’s trainers championship, then he needs to be throwing down the gauntlet early in these Graded affairs.

His eight-year-old Boombawn, ran a cracker here last April in the  Manifesto Novices’ Chase (Grade 1), and that bodes well for another positive showing on Sunday.

Hitman was a close second in this last year and finds himself rated 4lbs lower this time.

The worrying thing about Hitman however is that he hasn’t won now since 2022, which is a 14-race losing run, even if his mark is dropping all the time.

Given that Paul Nicholls’ nine-year-old appears to be a proverbial “Mr Seconditus”, it may well pay to include him in any combination forecasts/exactas that you place on this two and a half mile contest.

The Jamie Snowden-trained Colonel Harry hasn’t been seen since he took a tumble on New Year’s Day at Cheltenham.

Prior to that he was a game runner up in the Colin Parker Memorial at Carlisle, after being sent off the favourite, then flopped big style in the Coral Gold Cup when tackling 3m2f for the first time.

A step back to this 2m4f trip will definitely be preferable to this Shirocco-gelding.

Suggested Old Roan Chase antepost bet: Colonel Harry (E/W)

*Odds subject to change – prices accurate at the time of writing*