held up, headway approaching 7th, blundered 4 out, weakening when blundered again 3 out
held up in rear, steady headway from 7th, hanging left from 4 out, challenging when blundered 2 out, soon led and clear very easily
pulled hard and soon prominent, with leader approaching 5th, weakening when mistake 7th, pulled up before next
in rear when head 3rd, mistake 5th, behind from 7th
in touch to 6th, behind when pulled up and dismounted 2 out
led, headed approaching 4 out, hanging left and weakening approaching 2 out
keen with leader, led approaching 4th to 4 out, soon weakened
mid-division, some headway 7th, soon weakened
behind and tailed off, pulled up before 4 out
in touch, went 2nd 6th, led 4 out, jumped left 2 out, soon headed and beaten
always towards rear
Unlocked and An Girseach should both go well here, but Cornish Rebel gets the vote as we are prepared to forgive him for his disappointing run in the Weatherbys Champion bumper on his last racecourse appearance at Cheltenham back in March. Prior to that, the selection had looked a star in the making when impressively winning arguably the best bumper of last season at Newbury back in February. He did not get the race run to suit last time, but if he can reproduce his previous effort at Newbury he will be hard to beat. He is also reunited here with Ruby Walsh who won on him on that day. Unlocked looks the main danger as he ran well when a good second behind Eric¿s Charm at Lingfield earlier in the month. He is well thought of by his connections, and looked to need the run at Lingfield, so with improvement expected, he will not be too far away at the finish. An Girseach showed promise on his British debut back in July when finishing fourth behind Slyboots at Worcester, but he did not look to be anything out of the ordinary so will need to improve to feature at the finish here. Of the rest, Mach Four is from an in-form yard and could be interesting if he supported in the market, but Cornish Rebel could be a cut above these, and is our confident choice.
