held up towards rear, headway halfway, tracked leader going well approaching 3 out, ridden and one pace next
held up in rear, pushed along 4 out, ridden next, led approaching 2 out, stayed on strongly
led to halfway, dropped rear 7th, weakened approaching 4 out, tailed off when pulled up before 3 out
tracked leaders, reminder 5th, ridden 4 out, weakened after next
tracked leader, led halfway, pushed along 4 out, ridden and headed approaching 2 out, one pace under pressure
held up in touch, reminder 6th and dropped rear, weakened next, tailed off when pulled up before 5 out
Hayaain and Colonial Rule are little better than moderate so neither Sumthyne Special nor Birkdale would need to retain much ability to win this and preference is for the latter, who is taken to give weight away all round. The selection has not been seen since his 10th of 11 finishers behind Bindaree in the 2002 Grand National but is unlikely to have been brought back by connections unless he was ready. Birkdale makes more appeal than Sumthyne Special, who was pulled up on his latest start at Hexham in May having been off for more than a year prior to that. Colonial Rule is on a long losing sequence and there has been little sign of him bucking the trend since leaving the yard of Jonjo O'Neill for his current handler. Hayaain makes most appeal of the remainder as he at least has been running consistently well in handicaps of late, while Lantern Leader has given little sign of encouragement in recent starts in Ireland and now has his first outing since joining the yard of Lucinda Russell. With so many doubts concerning most of the participants this is probably not a race to get heavily involved in but Birkdale is more than capable of giving weight and a beating to his rivals and gets the vote on his comeback outing.
