Amoola not chasing Gold in Clarence House at Ascot

The seven-year-old loves the Berkshire track, having been won the last two runnings of the Listed handicap chase, over the same course and distance at the Clarence House, at the track's late October meeting.

Those successes came under Bridget Andrews, though Harry Skelton will be back in the plate for Saturday's feature.

Each time he has won that race, he has gone on to finish close second in the Hurst Park Handicap Chase, at the mid-November meeting, next time, to reinforce the old theory of 'horses for courses'.

However, those events are all handicaps and at the weekend Amoola Gold will be lining up in a Grade 1 field. His official rating of 151 suggests that, no matter how much he loves Ascot, he should be watching on from a distance when the race develops in earnest. He is 9lb inferior to the next-highest rated runner in Paul Nicholls-trained Hitman and up against two real superstars in Shishkin and Energumene.

Nevertheless, economics is the driver behind Skelton's theory and with a small field of just five entered, he would only have to jump around to pick up a nice pot just for completing.

A similar exercise proved profitable for the Skelton stable two years ago when Marracudja picked up £16,000 for finishing third of five behind Defi Du Seuil. However, there was a sting in the tail as Marracudja was put up 11lb for his pains.

What Amoola Gold has in his favour is an excellent course record that reads two wins and two second places from four visits to Ascot.

"It's unrealistic to think we can win, obviously, against probably all of them on numbers but he definitely excels at Ascot and you've got to be in those races. When they cut up to small numbers you've got to give it a go," Skelton told Sky Sports Racing.

"I ran Marracudja quite controversially in this race two years ago. He went up all that weight and there was a bit of a discussion about that. He finished third that day and picked up a chunk of prize money. You've got to be in it."