Monday 17 November 2014

Review of the day

No joy this afternoon, as Buywise could only stay on into fifth place in the Paddy Power Gold Cup.

The consensus seemed to be that his jumping had again let him down – but that wasn’t my take on things…
Sure, he’s not slick over his fences – but he didn’t make too many mistakes.

I think the issue is that his jockey didn’t have confidence in him being able to jump when in amongst horses.
Consequently he rode him wide – and rode him conservatively.

This resulted in him losing ground as the pace quickened – and you are not going to win a race like the Paddy Power Gold cup, when you are virtually last at the top of the hill and there has been little pace.

He ran on really well, as I expected him would – but he had too much to do…

In fairness, both the winner, Caid Du Berlais and the runner up, Johns Spirit, also ran tremendous races – whilst an argument could also be made for fourth placed Oscar Whiskey finishing closer.

At the end of the day, Buywise wasn’t unlucky – but I remain convinced that he is capable of winning a race like todays, off his current mark (ideally against a smaller field – or if given a more aggressive ride).

Elsewhere, the mentions managed to hit the bar a couple of times – but on balance, it was probably a day best swerved…

I thought that Kings Palace would need to be slick over his obstacles if he was to win the novice chase – and he was absolutely electric !
Taken at face value, today’s victory would make his a serious contender for the RSA chase – there’s just he doubt in the back of my mind, that he did similar over hurdles last season, before disappointing at the festival.

I really couldn’t have had Sam Winner in the distance handicap chase – so that was definitely a good race for me to swerve !
As I said this morning, I could have given over half the field a chance – but he would have been well down my list.
In fairness, he showed a real will to win – and I’ll certainly think twice before opposing him next time he runs.
Of the ones I did fancy, then Saint Are ran a cracker on his debut for Tom George; whilst Cape Tribulation ran a fair race, possibly finding the distance just beyond him.
With a few more pounds off his rating he could be very interesting in a northern chase.

Big Easy was one of two mentions to trade odds on in-running this afternoon – and get beaten…
He looked to have Katkeaus measure turning in - but that one out battled him up the hill.
The real eye catcher in the race was Invicta Lake – I wonder if he will slip under people s radar…

Over at Uttoxeter, Henry King was the other mention to hit the bar.
He led from flag fall and was 8 lengths clear when jumping the second last.
However he was running on empty at that point and ultimately did well to almost hold on.
He might be tricky to place as improvement is not likely – and he will doubtless go up a pound or two for todays run.

Earlier in the after Union Jack D’Ycy looked in need of the run (unusually for one of Venetias). He could certainly be of interest next time out.

Finally, Dark Dune ran a respectable race to finish third at Wetherby, but found the 2 that were better than him over hurdles, were also better than him over fences !

On to tomorrow then…

TVB. 

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