Review of the day

As you are all aware, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what went wrong at Cheltenham this season – but with the benefit of hindsight, I do wonder if we were just a bit unlucky…

When Rajdhani Express won this afternoon, he became the 4^th horse that I tipped at Cheltenham to win on its next outing (adding to Taglietelle, Thunder and Roses and Thunder Zone).

All 4 have won at decent prices – and 3 of them in big races.
Additionally, 2 ex Cheltenham tips have since finished second - and I think that only 10 of them have subsequently run…

And what a relief it was to see Rajdhani come home in front.

As I said this morning, I felt he was the best tip I issued at Cheltenham – but he never had a chance there.

All things being equal, I wouldn’t have tipped him today.

He was too short a price, in too competitive a race - but after the victory of Taglietelle yesterday, who had a similar profile, I felt I had to pull the trigger – and needless to say I was very glad I did.

He absolutely hacked up under Sam Waley Cohen and thankfully was able to justify my opinion of him.

I needed that…

Earlier in the day it had been a case of close – but no cigar…

I felt that Qewy was given an uncharacteristically poor ride by AP – who sat too far out of his ground behind an average pace.

He might have been no match for the impressive winner regardless, but he had to exert way too much energy to get into a challenging position.

He was never going to win after that…

I have no complaints about the way Cue Card was ridden – and I thought he ran a really good race.

Unfortunately, Don Cossack was simply different class.

In truth, I think Cue Card would have struggled to contain Don, even if he’d been on top form – he looked a real grade 1 performer this afternoon.

The day had started poorly, when I was miles off the mark with my two picks in the opener.

The market seemed to know that Pearl Swan had no chance - and that was exactly how it panned out: whilst Some Buckle never really looked likely to get involved, despite making a bit of an effort down the straight.

Non of the days mentions featured either:

Rawnaq and Irish Cavalier took heavy falls in the novice chase – both were too early in the race to know whether they might have been involved in the finish. That said, the way Saphir du Rheu won, you have to think that they would only have been playing for place money.

Minella Rocco was withdrawn from the novice hurdle (presumably on account of the ground) leaving Thistlecraft to come home a convincing winner.
He has been a mention a couple of times this season - but never a tip.

Finally, Chintu never featured in the bumper – where Bellshill ran much better than he had done at Cheltenham, but was unable to reel in gutsy winner, Barbers Hill.

TVB.