tracked leaders, effort when not much room on inside 3f out, soon ridden, stayed on to chase winner over 1f out, no chance
held up in rear, ridden over 3f out, headway entering final furlong, stayed on towards finish
made all, ridden clear final furlong
held up, headway 3f out, effort over 2f out, weakened final furlong
tracked winner, ridden over 3f out, weakened 2f out
Nonrunner
There are a couple of very well handicapped horses in this, and TBM Can is just preferred to Blackthorn, with Mr Lear best of the rest. Mark Brisbourne's gelding was notching the middle leg of a hat trick when finishing half a length ahead of Toni Alcala last month and is now two pounds worse off. However, while the latter is very exposed, TBM Can ran even better in defeat last time, when finishing third at Musselburgh. As he has no penalty today, he is now running off a five pounds lower mark and as such looks the one they have to beat. Blackthorn scored well in claiming company over ten furlongs last time and whilst he appears well handicapped on that form, he is an unknown quantity over this trip so is just passed over on this occasion. Mr Lear beat Billy Bathwick by two and a half lengths at Musselburgh three runs ago, and while he has not quite lived up to that form since then, a line through the runner-up gives him a slight edge over the selection. But IBM Can seems to be the more progressive of the two, and may still be a step ahead of the handicapper, so we fancy him to score again here.
