held up rear, outpaced 10th, ridden and rallied next, chased winner from 12th, never dangerous
led, headed 10th, soon ridden along, weakened 13th, kept on same pace
held up in touch, readily led 10th, soon clear, eased flat
chased leader to 11th, ridden and weakened next
in touch till weakened 11th, tailing off before pulled up 2 out
El Bandito gets the call here ahead of Gus des Bois and Mark Equal. The selection has been raised eight pounds for scoring at Leicester last time and this course and distance winner is steadily rising in the ratings following three wins in his last six races. He will not short change you in his bid to make that four so he has to be given a chance in this five-runner affair. Connections believe that he is better going left-handed and, interestingly, he is still entered for the Cathcart at Cheltenham. Gus des Bois is proving pretty consistent and has won from today's mark so he has to be on the shortlist. The Martin Pipe-trained Mark Equal is another that should be competitive from his current mark and course winner River Wye is very well-handicapped based on his 2000 form but has had only two runs since October 2002. Kitimat won from a mark of 64 in January but needs to find more racing from three pounds out of the weights. It's a tight call, but we'll stick with El Bandito to keep on progressing.
