Review of the day

I’m, sure there will be plenty more of them during the next few months - but I think that today has to go down as ‘one of those days’…

In fairness, I didn’t help matters.

For the second day in a row, I took a stance against a favourite from one of the big yards, mainly on the ground of fitness.

Yesterday, it was Smad Place – today it was Vibrato Valtat – and in both cases I was wrong…

In fairness, I do think there were also reasons in the form book to oppose Vibrato Valtat – but Paul Nichols clearly had him spot on, as he proved different class to his rivals…

He’ll likely get 6 or 7lbs of todays win – which will make him borderline Queen Mother Champion chase material.

That said, based on todays performance, he deserves to be in the mix for that kind of race…

All this said, I do think that Daryl Jacobs missed a trick on Third Intention.

Holding up a horse with proven stamina and proven fitness, didn’t strike me as the smartest of moves.

Third Intention was never likely to do top 2 mile chasers for a turn of foot.

As it was, he stayed on into second place – after Vibrato Voltat had well and truly flown.

In truth, the way he was ridden probably made little difference to the result (in fact, he might not have finished second if he had been ridden more aggressively) - but all the same, I would have preferred him to be given his best chance of victory (and I don’t think he was).

I can have no compliant on that score for Dunraven Storm – who did end up making the running.
However his jumping – particularly on the rain softened ground – just wasn’t good enough to ever put his rivals under pressure.

Todays other tip was Big Society - but unfortunately his race was over, almost as soon as it began…

Whether it was because of the blinkers, it’s impossible to know for sure – but he propped jumping the first fence and seemed to have real issues with the fences from that point on.

He was soon well detached – and pulled up not long after half way.

It was a very disappointing performance – particularly considering how strong he was in the market.

Now, I’ve little doubt that we triggered a bit of a rush on him this morning – but his price started drifting a little early in the afternoon (he was back out to 9/1 at midday) – and I think that if he hadn’t been truly fancied, his priced could easily have drifted back out to the original 14/1 (it was competitive race in which many were well backed).
The fact he remained strong in the market – going off a tight 7/1 shot, makes me think that someone other than me, thought he had a good chance…

Where he goes from here, is anyone’s guess.

I suspect he won’t be seen in blinkers again – and I guess he might be worth another shot in that case.

However, the cat is probably out of the bag a little with him…

The other race of interest today was the novice chase – and this was won in dogged style by Native River.

In truth, I didn’t think he was going to get the better of Abracadabra Sivola, who put in a much improved display - he certainly looks like a horse who could be worth following over fences.

But Native River collared him going to the last and stayed on strongly to win.

I suspect the race might have left its mark, however…

On to tomorrow then…

TVB.