made all, stayed on strongly from 2 out
tracked winner, pushed along 4 out, ridden next, no impression
tracked leading pair, mistake and slipped badly 5th, soon weakened, behind when pulled up before 7th
It's great to see good support for this race named after one of the all-time greats of the training world, W A Stephenson. Celioso, TyneandThyneagain and Castle Richard all have to be given consideration but we'll side with Urban Hymn. The Ferdy Murphy-trained won well on his chasing debut over course and distance and, although the form of that contest is a little hard to evaluate, he might be worth siding with. Celioso is also a course and distance winner and has followed up that success with a couple of good runs. As with the selection, his winner's penalty will not make life straightforward. Castle Richard showed plenty of promise on his chasing debut when second to the Richard Guest-trained Our Armageddon at Ayr and the winner has scored since. Guest runs TyneandThyneagain here. He was decent over hurdles and ran well after a long absence on his chasing debut to finish second at Southwell. He should improve for that but might need some juice in the ground to be seen at his best. Lochbuy Junior has won twice over hurdles and achieved a rating of around the 100 mark in that sphere. He too has had his injury problems and has a long absence to overcome. Overall, then, this brings us back to Urban Hymn who is taken to get the better of Castle Richard.
