soon behind, pushed along 3rd, tailed off and pulled up before 5th
made all, soon clear, hit 6th, held on well towards finish
held up in rear, headway and effort 3 out, kept on one paced from next
tracked leaders, lost place 6th, ridden and weakened next
held up towards rear, headway 5th and in touch, effort 3 out, one paced next
held up towards rear, reminders 4th, headway to chase leaders 6th, ridden 4 out, beaten next
held up in touch, mistake 1st, ridden approaching 3 out, soon weakened
held up in rear, ridden 6th, soon behind
tracked leader, ridden 4 out, weakened before next, tailed off when pulled up before 2 out
Though Stormy Lord's defeat of just over two lengths by Rhinestone Cowboy here last time can clearly not be taken at face value, the John Wade-trained gelding did enough that day to suggest that he should be good enough to see off a field that is not perhaps as competitive as it may look on paper. The seven-year-old also loves top of the ground conditions and gets them here, so he is a relatively confident selection. Exstoto is the only course and distance winner in the field and has to be respected. Likely to set the pace, the gelding has been running well enough since being exposed for that win here almost a year ago and, with a 4lb drop to help him, he could give the selection plenty to think about. Young American seems to go on any ground and cannot be ruled out despite top weight after running in some pretty decent races during the winter. He is now 3lb lower than his last winning mark and also goes on fast ground, so he could just be the fly in the ointment. However, he is overlooked purely because his recent form has been pretty disappointing. Of the remainder, Able Native has to be respected after a couple of decent efforts lately but the suspicion is that he might be found out on this faster ground.
