held up towards rear, headway and effort on outside over 2f out, one paced inside final furlong
tracked winner, pushed along over 3f out, ridden and one paced final 2f
towards rear, never dangerous
in touch, headway 3f out, soon ridden and effort, kept on one pace final furlong
in touch, ridden over 3f out, soon weakened
made all, ridden over 2f out, stayed on strongly final furlong
tracked leaders, pushed along over 3f out, ridden and no extra final 2f
mid division, headway and effort over 2f out, weakened over 1f out
held up in rear, brief effort over 2f out on outside, weakened over 1f out
Court Of Appeal and Mr Lear both like to race up with the pace, which are the best tactics for this course, and we just prefer the former here; Fast Foil and Arcalis also come into the reckoning. The latter is a progressive type but his style of racing might not be suited to this track, although Lynda Ramsden's gelding is respected nevertheless. Fast Foil tends to race fairly handy and this Mick Channon-trained filly has claims on her consistent level of recent form. Stallone and Market Avenue are other hold up types who have to respected, but Mr Lear has been kept busy of late and performing with credit in similar events. David Barron's four-year-old could take some passing if able to get the lead down the long home straight. But we are just going to pass him over in favour of Court Appeal, who was well ridden from a forward position when scoring at Chester, and similar tactics may be applied here. He stays further than this so it would be a big surprise not to see positive tactics, and on the prevailing fast ground, and particularly on the round course, Ripon appears to have one of the biggest front running biases in the country.
