Review of the day

There wasn’t too much to get excited about this afternoon, on a day when a number of the races were decided by jockeyship, as much as equine ability…

I certainly felt that was the case in the opening event on the card, where Ruby made all on Clarcam, jumping from fence to fence and getting his fractions spot on.

On the other hand, I was disappointed by the ride that Brendan Powell gave to Val de Law.

He tracked Josses Hill, who jumped right at most of his fences, taking Val de Law with him.

Despite that, Val De Law still ran really well – and whilst the jockeys probably didn’t make the difference between victory and defeat, they certainty exaggerated the superiority of the winner over the third.

It was a similar story with the next tip to run, Menorah.

Dickie kept him wide in a race where Noel Fehily got Silviniaco Conti settled and jumping.

Menorahs mistakes cost him the race – whereas the perfect ride from Fehily probably won it for Silviniaco…

Big Fella Thanks and Quinz represented us in the Foxhunters, but the race was as good as over for the former, at the very first fence.

He hit serious traffic problems caused by a couple of fallers and lost over 20 lengths in the incident.

He did make a lot of the ground back up – but I’m sure it would have taken its toll late on.
We never got to find out for sure however, as he unshipped his rider (eventually) at Bechers Brook.

Big Fella Thanks ran a reasonable enough race, but there wasn’t enough in the old legs to ever really threaten the principals.

The final tip of the day to run was Arnaud – and the betting accurately foretold his fortune.

He was a big drifter on the BF – and whilst I felt he travelled quite well for the first half of the race, he was quickly beaten shortly after that.

It was a disappointing effort…

The mentions on the other hand, had a blinding day !

Intense Tango didn’t manage to take advantage of Hargem under-performing: but Jezki took full advantage of Artic Fires final hurdle fall.

However, best was saved until last, when Tagliatelle demonstrated just how unlucky we’d been at Cheltenham by coming home first in the finale off a mark 5lb higher.

I did consider tipping him last night, but 10/1 seemed a tight price in a very open race.

These things happen (as we know only too well !)

TVB.