This looked a gruelling affair which is supported by the fact that only four of this nine strong field managed to complete the course.
I do not think he looked the obvious winner for much of this race, so badly was he travelling for most of the contest. I would suggest that this was an incredible ride by his young jockey whilst his horse struggled to cope with the conditions. He also edged out to his left throughout and I would imagine we will be seeing him revert to a left handed track next time. It was good to see him finally win a big prize after he had finished as the runner-up in two big Cheltenham handicaps previously.
Whilst his second-place finish will read well in the record books, I doubt he actually achieved too much in a race where only four horses managed to complete the course. Then again, he did appear likely to be tailed off jumping the row of four fences on the approach to the final bend. He was still around 15 lengths behind the clear leader jumping three out before finishing just in front of Etalon at the winning post. Hopefully he will perform well again when he returns to compete at Kempton where he has a three from three record over fences.
He seemed to only just last home on his previous start at Ascot over a slightly shorter trip. I would say he repeated that sort of performance here as he only weakened on the approach to the final fence over this two furlongs longer trip.
He has yet to fire in any of his three races this season. He was beaten 22 lengths by the third horse home and was the last horse to finish. Although this was a slightly better run compared with his first two, for now I will remain wary of his claims until he shows something much better.
He fell at the ninth fence when well behind. He was, however, in front of Bad at the time of his departure and the leader clearly stopped in front so we cannot be certain he would not have played a part in the finish.
He took a crashing fall at the 12th fence which was the sixth from home. I strongly suspect that this was his type of race being one where the leaders went quickly before stopping in the latter stages. His demise came too far out to be sure of anything; however, he did appear to be on good terms with himself up until his fall and he remains interesting, at least in the short term.
He jumped left at several fences as he did when winning here in 2024. This was a quick turnaround for a fragile horse, so I am guessing it is a case of running him whilst he remains sound.
This softer surface was not in his favour, and he was pulled up soon after the second last fence when already a long way behind the prominent horses.
I suspect the conditions were too taxing for him as he pulled up before the turn for home when well behind. Although his win to run ratio is poor, he is generally also a consistent and reliable horse having finished in the first three in 13 of his 18 completed chases.
