held up in touch, lost place and mistake 7th, went 3rd 12th, mistake 4 out, some headway under pressure after 3 out, no impression and beaten next
tracked leaders, went 2nd 5th, led 9th, mistake next, clear approaching 2 out, stayed on well
led and clear from 4th, headed 9th, weakened after 12th, tailed off
tracked clear leader to 5th, mistake and reminder 7th, close 3rd when fell 8th
held up, in touch when badly hampered and not recover 8th, blundered 10th and soon struggling
held up in rear, not fluent 5th, close 4th when fell 8th
held up, left in 3rd at 8th, chased winner from 10th, ridden and no impression before 2 out
Puntal came back to form at Ascot last week to win his fourth race of the season over fences and has to be respected but Martin Pipe's gelding is arguably better over two miles and, over today's distance, we prefer to take a chance with the Paul Nicholls-trained Ladalko, who is preferred to stablemate L'Aventure. The last mentioned gets all the allowances going and the mare has an obvious chance having shown improved form when beating some potentially useful types at Doncaster last week. However, Ruby Walsh prefers to ride Ladalko and that is too good a hint to ignore. The selection showed plenty of promise on his sole start over hurdles in France and lost no time in opening his account over fences for current connections when running out the easy winner of a race at Folkestone last month. Improvement is needed to beat Puntal but the son of Kadalko is unexposed and the likelihood is that there is plenty more to come from the five-year-old. Henrietta Knight's One Nation already looks as though he wants further and a bigger threat may come from Paul Webber's Patricksnineteenth, who has run well in defeat in the face of stiff tasks on his first two starts over fences. Neither See You Sometime nor Tikram look good enough on what they have achieved so far in a race where our vote goes to the potentially smart Ladalko.
