held up, headway halfway, weakened over 2f out
chased winner, pushed along over 3f out, soon ridden, kept on to take 2nd well inside last furlong
chased leaders, chased winner over 4f out, ridden over 2f out, kept on final furlong
slowly into stride, held up behind, headway 3f out, soon ridden, no impression after
in touch, driven over 4f out, weakened well over 2f out
towards rear, ridden over 3f out, weakened over 2f out
made all, soon clear, ridden over 1f out, kept on final furlong, ridden out
always in rear, lost place from halfway, soon tailed off
mid-division, behind from over 3f out
An uninspiring start to proceedings, with Lost Spirit a tentative choice to prevail against the likes of Michaels Dream and Shalbeblue. Peter Hiatt also runs Lazzaz here but we prefer the claims of stablemate Lost Spirit, a previous course and distance winner. That victory came last year when he was allowed to dominate proceedings from start to finish, and if they give him an uncontested lead here, the seven-year-old may be hard to catch. Michaels Dream has been disappointing of late but was also successful round here last autumn and faces nothing stronger than of late, while Shalbeblue goes well for a girl and is a gutsy dual-purpose performer on his day. Basically, they all line up out of form but we will take Lost Spirit to bounce back.