tracked leader untill lost place halfway, soon ridden and weakened and tailed 8th
tracked leader, ridden to challenge 2 out, kept on gamley to lead close home
held up, headway to in touch 8th, ridden 3 out weakened from next
led, ridden approaching 3 out, soon headed and weakened
Tony Dobbin would have the chance to ride any of the Lungo pair so we will side with him to land the finale with Kivatos. The grey has been running particularly well at present and looks to have been found another opportunity to land another hurdling prize. Ballystone's habit of hitting fences was demonstrated in a Racing Post cover story earlier in the week. He is capable of landing this but looks a notoriously tricky ride. If his conditional rider keeps the horse's mind on the task, he could yet give Dobbin a major cause for concern. This event represents a step down in class for Exstoto. He ran well in a number of decent handicaps in the North last term but Richard Fahey's decision to step up in trip looks strange given that the gelding has not got home over much shorter trips. Hidden Bounty rates as the chief danger to our selection. He appreciates a faster surface and produced a pleasing enough reappearance effort at Wetherby. Given that he is very lightly campaigned, it is highly likely that we have not seen the best of the seven-year-old and there could be much more to come. We will stick with proven rather than theoretical form and suggest Kivatos as the likely winner.
