prominent to 5th, behind when hampered 12th
held up and keen, headway 3rd, led next, ridden 2 out, stayed on
held up, headway 11th, ridden to chase winner from 3 out, stayed on flat
in touch, headway 10th, weakening when blundered and pulled up 14th
held up, mistake 5th, headway 12th, ridden 3 out, weakened next
led to 4th, lost place 11th, rallied approaching 3 out, outpaced next, ran on flat
Even giving upwards of a stone away here, Stromness looks an absolute banker. Alan King's yard continues to enjoy a purple patch, and jockey Robert Thornton is riding better than ever, and Stromness should be another winner for the pair. Rated far superior to all of these rivals over hurdles, and with what now looks a tremendous piece of form to his name, when second to Strong Flow off level weights over fences in May, the classy, tough stayer should easily have the measure of these, provided that he jumps round. That is the one slight doubt about him here, for his fencing was less than fluent at Doncaster last time, but on the flat he should still have too much in the locker for the others. The Lyme Volunteer receives plenty of weight and looks to be the one for the forecast, but if Stromness stands up it will be a huge surprise if he is beaten.
