in rear, jumped right 12th, ridden 13th, brief effort approaching 14th, soon outpaced
tracked leaders, led and mistake 4th, mistake again 10th, blundered badly and headed 14th, recovered to lead again 3 out and further mistake, soon headed and weakened
in touch, mistake 13th, steady headway 14th, edged left on bend approaching 15th, every chance and disp lead at last, no extra flat
tracked leaders, driven from 10th, jumped left and lost place 14th, hampered on bend approaching 15th, kept on
led until headed approaching 4th, bad mistake 13th, left in lead 14th, headed approaching next, soon weakened
tracked leaders throughout until led 4 out, headed next, slight lead 2 out, challenged and disp lead last, led soon after
An excellent Grade 2 contest, bringing together three exciting novices in One Knight, Moss Harvey and Joly Bey, who could all develop into leading hopes for this season's major honours. Malcolm Jefferson's seven-year-old, sixth in the Royal & SunAlliance Novices' Hurdle, beat Paul Nicholls' French-bred five-year-old by one-and-three-quarter lengths at Fakenham on his fencing debut but is now nine pounds worse off at the weights, while Philip Hobbs's runner won well on his chasing debut at Chepstow from a Nicholls' runner. Nicholls has won this race in the past with Valley Henry and Shotgun Willy so he clearly rates his runner. High Cotton has never won a race so will be getting weight from the three principals mentioned, but he has shown plenty of ability. A novice event is his for the taking but he may have to settle for a place at best again. Lucky Bay stays well but may not quite be good enough while Keltic Heritage, though likeable, is out of his depth. One Knight is a very likeable individual and gets the TEAMtalk vote in a smashing contest.
