held up, headway 4 out, left in lead 2 out, soon ridden, hung left last, all out
in touch, lost place 5th, soon behind
mid-division, lost place after 4th, behind when not much room after 7th
prominent, outpaced 3 out, kept on flat, no chance with first two
prominent, led approaching 2nd, hung right approaching 5th, fell next
mid-division, hit 2nd, not fluent and lost place 4th, tailed off until pulled up before 3 out
always behind
led to 2nd, left in lead again 6th, ridden and headed after 3 out, weakened next
tracked leaders, ridden 3 out, weakened approaching last
held up and pulled hard, headway 4 out, left 2nd 2 out, ridden and switched right flat, ran on towards finish
tracked leaders, led going well after 3 out, fell next
always behind, tailed off and pulled up before 7th
behind, headway 6th, ridden next, soon weakened
Plenty of pointers to gleaned for future reference and Toon Trooper, Cyindien and Long walk should all be wining before too long. However, Mister Flint and The Dark Lord look to be the pair to concentrate on for today and the latter, with experience of hurdles on his side, is just given the vote. The Dai Williams-trained Golly is another who would have to be considered as a live danger but he is a notoriously difficult ride and is not one to rely upon too heavily. The same has to be said about Mister Flint, whose bumper form is admittedly solid and he can be expected to have been well prepared for his hurdles debut. Nevertheless, The Dark Lord was matching the potentially useful Be Fair stride-for-stride until crumpling on landing at the second-last at Huntingdon a fortnight ago, and if that experience has not left a mental scare he will be difficult to overhaul today. The Lucy Wadham-trained gelding had previously improved with each outing and has a good opportunity to add to his tally if drawing from those experiences here.
