The charming town of Chester and its unique racecourse in the centre of town are the scene of this Wednesday to Friday's top races.

Wednesday sees the running of the Lister Cheshire Oaks which includes possible for the other Oaks coming up.  It has 10 runners to tackle the 2300m turf.  Topping the market is the Joseph O'Brien trained Above The Curve by American Pharoah with Shane Cross doing the riding duties and they are on 3/2. 

Night Battle by Kingman is on 3/1 for the Crisfords and James Doyle, and Hello Jumeirah by Golden Horn is on 6/1 for William Haggas and Tom Marquand.  The last two have wins on the All Weather and now transferring to turf.

The Chester Vase is G3 over 2500m for 3yo c&g and is often seen as a good prep for the Derby although the geldings can't continue down that path.  There are only 4 starters -all still colts too!  New London has won twice at Newmarket over a similar trip in his two outings to date.  He's by Dubawi and is on 1/3 for Appleby-Buick.  Main challenger comes from Ballydoyle who have a great record in the race - they are sending their Galileo Changingoftheguard, who has had 4 starts, with Ryan Moore riding.  They are on 4/1.

Thursday it's the Ormonde G3 for the older horses over 2700m and there are 12 starters. Albafiora is on 2/1 for Ralph Beckett and Rossa Ryan with Believe in Love on 5/1 and Hamish 11/2.

We don't yet have the markets for Friday's races but for the Huxley over 2100m which at the moment has 10 runners, we are looking at Al Aasy, Ilaraab – with those two looking for redemption – and Solid Stone for Sir Michael Stoute and Ryan Moore.

At this stage the Chester Cup still  has 43 runners which will have to come down to 17 and in the Ante Post Hugo Palmer's Solent Gateway is on 11/2, Dermot Weld's Falcon Eight 7/1 and Coltrane one of several on 12/1.