held up in touch, ridden for headway over 1f out, every chance final furlong, just denied
slowly into stride, headway 2f out, hung left 1f out
in touch, ridden 3f out, not clear run over 1f out, stayed on
tracked leaders, ridden and weakened 2f out
soon led, headed after 2f, stayed prominent until weakened over 1f out
keen, led over 5f out, weakening when headed over 2f out
slowly into stride, ridden over 3f out, weakened 2f out
towards rear, ridden 3f out, headway and hung left over 1f out, plugged on
in touch and going well, ridden to lead over 2f out, challenged inside final furlong just held on
tracked leaders, lost place over 3f out
keen in mid-division, headway to chase leaders 5f out, ran on near finish
A tough nursery can go to Manic, who just edges the vote over Tiger Dawn and King After, who both merit plenty of respect on these terms. The latter was unlucky to come across a well handicapped type here five days ago but, still went down fighting in a similar contest. He looks sure to be a leading player if in the same mood this afternoon and is a definite for the shortlist. So too is Tiger Dawn who, having only raced four times so far, is still open to a fair amount of improvement. The trip and surface should not be a problem for the William Haggas-trained gelding and he has to be considered as the biggest threat to the selection after a solid piece of form registered at Lingfield on his latest start. However, Manic holds the edge in terms of the quality of opponents he has already faced and, even though the handicapper may have to adjust his assumption that he is an 8lb better horse than Tiger Dawn, there is still enough scope held by Manic to hold off the challenge today
