mid-division, not fluent, headway 3 out, soon ridden, led after last, kept on
held up, headway halfway to in touch, ridden 3 out, soon one pace and blundered last
mid-division, ridden and weakened approaching 7th, soon beaten
towards rear, ridden after 9th and weakened from 3 out
tracked leader, headway to lead after 9th, ridden next, headed and no extra after last
led until headed after 9th, soon ridden, blundered 3 out and weakened from next
This is a one-horse race, with potentially top-class Liberman surely only having to jump round to collect, with Reivers Moon possibly the one to chase him home. Successful in two of his three bumpers in Ireland before moving to Martin Pipe, Liberman created an immediate impression when chasing home Rhinestone Cowboy at Cheltenham last November. He was then put away and did not appear again until lining up in the Festival Bumper in March, and it was certainly worth the wait, as he disposed of some very useful rivals in the manner of a class animal. Liberman has schooled like a natural over timber and should have made his seasonal reappearance at Cheltenham at the weekend, but instead travels up for easy pickings on this better ground. It is interesting that Pipe starts him off over two and a half miles, so we can assume that the Sun Alliance Hurdle, rather than the Supreme Novices' is the ultimate target, although who knows, he may turn out to be good enough to line up in the Champion Hurdle itself if showing enough speed. Today should be little more than a run-out then, with Reivers Moon, who has been placed behind useful opponents on his last two outings at Kelso, best of the rest.
