William Hill Handicap Chase at Down Royal on Tuesday - 'Well treated on his best hurdles form' It’s the latest installment of the William Hill Challenge Series at Down Royal on Tuesday, with nine runners going to post for the 3m handicap chase, the finale of the competitive seven-race card from the Northern Irish venue. The series, which runs from October to April, covering 50 races at 13 different Irish tracks, sees points allocated per race to trainers and jockeys allocated on a first to seventh place finishing basis (10,6,5,4,3,2,1) with an overall table to decide the prize winners at the final fixture on 24th April 2026. We’ve previewed Tuesday’s race below, providing a selection and next best. Selection: Al Kalila @ SP with Ladbrokes Next Best: Lucky Lyreen @ SP with Ladbrokes Crawford set for a repeat Stuart Crawford was on target in this corresponding race last season with 12-1 chance Now Where Or When and he’s got strong claims of a repeat courtesy of the lightly raced AL KALILA. The seven-year-old, who showed fair form in bumpers, has won just one of his 11 outings to date - that victory coming in a 2m5f maiden hurdle at Ayr a little over a year ago. However, the son of Soldier Of Fortune has run some excellent races in defeat in his three outings since, keeping on for a highly commendable fourth of 18 in a Listed handicap at Fairyhouse off a mark of 117 in April, prior to finishing second and third in a couple of chase starts over 3m at Kelso this season. He’s run to Racing Post Ratings of 125 and 127 in those two outings over fences and, with further improvement likely, is surely a big player off an official mark of 120. The Charles Byrnes-trained Diamond Dollar ran out a smooth winner on his chasing debut at Punchestown nine days ago and is likely to be popular with punters, despite a hike in the ratings. The seven-year-old is on a hat-trick, having won over hurdles at Limerick previously, but he’s got stamina to prove beyond 2m4f and is worth taking on, theoretically up 19lb for his latest win (15lb rise and minus a 5lb claimer). Cheekpieces a positive addition for Lucky Lyreen The Gordon Elliott-trained Lucky Lyreen has achieved very little in his three chase outings thus far, but he’s well treated on his best hurdles form and should be seen in a better light, now back up in trip and reverting to handicap company. The eight-year-old, who won his bumper here, is on a losing run dating back to March 2024, but he’s regularly contested much better races than this during that period, including the Grade 3 Pertemps Final at the Cheltenham Festival last spring. A fine sixth of 25 off a mark of 132 at the Dublin Racing Festival a year ago, he’s now down to just 119 and looks the chief threat to the selection, albeit this ground is probably a bit quicker than he’d ideally want it. Philip Rothwell’s Duffys Hodey is admirably consistent and has to enter calculations, the nine-year-old’s form figures since November 2024 reading 213112-212. He’s seemingly not as effective over fences as hurdles, but he’s 17lb lower as a chaser (95 compared to 112) and sneaks at the bottom of the weights of just 10st 1lb.
