Reporter: Andy Gibson
On official ratings, Mambonumberfive’s new mark of 146 still leaves him with plenty to find to trouble the 157-rated Arkle favourite Lulamba. This Ben Pauling four-year-old does seem to hurdle one or two of his fences and he will certainly be better again when competing on softer ground and/or over another half a mile. That said, plenty of stayers have performed well in the Arkle and the bigger question mark with him is whether his low jumping would stand up to the test of a fast run Arkle.
His winning margins here were enhanced by the closest chaser Mirabad dropping away rapidly like a non-stayer. This left the 135-rated Hansard to inherit the runner up spot. I doubt the actual form of this contest is worthy of a potential Arkle winner. At the same time, Mambonumberfive’s claims in March would be seriously enhanced should the ground ride soft on the opening day of the festival.
His apparent late progress was a little misleading as he was running past the eventual third who was stopping having come to the end of his stamina limits. That said, Hansard did actually close a little from the last fence to the winning post on the impressive looking winner which offers some encouragement. He has earned his racing club members 16k for completing in second place and has only been raised 2lbs to 137 by the handicapper. One would hope we will be seeing him compete in a handicap off that rating rather than another graded race.
I would suggest he did not quite see out this trip in this company. He did manage to win at Exeter last time out and that is a much stiffer course compared with Kempton. On that day, however, the mare that chased him home, Joyeuse, was immediately sent back over hurdles. Furthermore, the third horse to finish, Beat The Bat, was making his chasing debut and will require another half a mile before showing his best.
His jumping lacked fluency on this quicker ground over this sharper track, and I suspect he will require a more galloping course and softer ground to be competitive at this level.
He made a mistake at the first fence which put him on the back foot from very early on. He then seemed to struggle round the bend leaving the home straight. I don’t know if these two minor incidents impacted on his performance; however, he did not look happy during the race. He always looked like he was going a stride faster than ideal and hopefully this was purely due to the combination of the ground and track proving to be too much of a speed test for him.
