chased leaders, ridden over 1f out, every chance inside final furlong, ran on
outpaced after 1f, ridden and headway over 1f out, stayed on, not reach leaders
prominent, ridden to lead final furlong, ran on
in touch, ridden halfway, weakened final furlong
prominent, ridden over 1f out, soon weakened
led, ridden and headed final furlong, no extra
soon outpaced, effort and hung right over 1f out, no impression
soon outpaced
Leonalto can land the opening race at the expense of Bold Minstrel and Lady Hopeful, with Sound That Alarm worth a mention. The latter hails from a stable that has not had the best of seasons so far, but the son of Groom Dancer is entered for a host of valuable sales races so should be fairly useful. However, lack of experience will count against him here, with preference for Leonalto who has a nice draw in stall three. Brian Meehan's gelding seemed to improve for the application of first-time blinkers when third at Brighton on his last start over two months ago, and hopefully will have strengthened up in the meantime enough to repel the challenge of Bold Minstrel. Despite being not too well drawn in stall seven, Mick Quinn's youngster lines up with a leading chance on the evidence so far. The negative is that he is having his fourth outing since the end of May, but his second to Godsend at Warwick should really be good enough. We are prepared to oppose him though with Leonalto, with Lady Hopeful put up as another danger. She was only just touched off at Musselburgh but is dropping back markedly in trip here so may be outpaced from the worst of the draw. All in all, Leonalto looks the one to be on.