in touch, dropped rear halfway, weakened approaching 4 out
held up in mid-division, headway 7th to chase leaders, left close 2nd 3 out, effort and chance after last, held towards finish
always behind
mid-division, headway 7th, left in lead 3 out, ridden out
towards rear, outpaced 8th, left remote 4th 3 out
held up in touch, blundered badly 6th, soon lost place, tailed off when pulled up before 3 out
tracked leaders, pushed along approaching 4 out, outpaced when left 3rd next
An interesting race that could give a good indication as to whether a few of these have a future over fences or will revert to timber in due course. However, Winter Garden, with course and distance experience on his side, is given the vote in the search for value over Spectormeter, whose best form over hurdles will ensure that the on-course bookmakers do not take any chances with the seven-year-old for this, his chasing debut. Jodante and Gone Too Far are the others out of the rest to consider as they both hold fair form to their names without having set the world alight to date. However, these fences take some jumping when the ground is on the testing side experience of the track could be a vital ingredient as things unfold. Therefore a chance is taken with Winter Garden, who posted his best effort for some time when chasing home Bernardon at the end of last month. A similar effort will make him very hard to get past today. Richard Guest will have a good handle on the selection on that form line and will be hoping for a bold show from Spectrometer. However, his charge seems to have lost some of his sparkle of late and he is not one to go overboard about at the likely odds.
