in touch, lost place 7th, no headway after
held up, behind 8
held up, headway 4 out, soon one pace
held up, headway 15th, no impression
slowly away, towards rear, jumped slowly, behind when pulled up 7th
held up, never dangerous
held up, mid-division, reminders approaching 9th, weakened 14th, behind when pulled up 3 out
prominent, ridden to challenge 3 out, held in 3rd when slipped up on bend approaching 2 out
chased leaders, good progress from 15th, led 2 out, ran on
in touch until weakened 4 out
held up, never dangerous
held up in touch, ridden 4 out, stayed on same pace from next
held up, bad mistake 6th, never dangerous
held up, tailed off halfway, behind when pulled up after 11th
led, ridden and headed 2 out, kept on same pace
tracked leaders, ridden and weakened 5 out
The largest field of the evening will assemble for this hunter chase in which Route One may be the answer ahead of Cape Stormer, Royal Snoopy and Maggies Brother to name but three. Quite a few of these have been plying their trade between the flags, but there is no substitute for experience over the regulation fences, and with that in mind, Route One gets the vote. The selection defied a double penalty when scoring over two miles at Leicester in March and now looks ready for the step up in trip judged by the way that he plugged on behind the useful Mouseski at Ludlow a fortnight ago. The faster ground will be in his favour here as well and he can see off the challenge of Cape Stormer. The latter, successful in the past for both Henrietta Knight and Paul Nicholls, finished eighth in the Aintree Fox Hunters, and brings a bit of class into this sphere. However, he is beatable as proved by his defeat on fast ground at Folkestone last time. Conditions will be the same here and although the trip will help, he is worth taking on. Royal Snoopy is a former course and distance winner and is bidding to make up for an unlucky defeat at Market Rasen where he had things sewn up when unshipping Annabelle Armitage at the last. He too will find conditions plenty fast enough but should not be ruled out entirely, while Maggies Brother, also successful over track and trip in the past, stays all day and will probably find even this trip on the short side. An interesting contest can go to Route One.
