held up towards rear, struggling approaching 7th, soon behind
held up in touch, lost place before 7th, soon weakened
ridden 6th, always behind
held up, slightly hampered 6th, headway on outside 3 out, never near leaders
led after 1st, headed 3 out, soon ridden and switched right, stayed on well under pressure flat
mid-division, headway after 6th, headed and not fluent 2 out, one pace flat
held up, headway on inside after 6th, weakened approaching 3 out
mid-division, progress before 7th, ridden to lead 2 out, driven out
led until after 1st, remained prominent, ridden after 3 out, weakened approaching 2 out
prominent, still in touch when fell 6th
Lord Of Beauty may have the scope to beat Armariver and Santando, with the likes of Amour Multiple, Dhehdaah and Kelrev all to be considered as well in an open-looking event. There are certainly plenty in with chances here, but the lightly-raced Lord Of Beauty gets the nod after his narrow defeat of Kelrev at Ascot at the end of December. That was his first run over hurdles in 630-days after having endured a spell of leg trouble, and if Noel Chance can keep him sound, there should be more improvement to come. Granted, he is now slightly worse off at the weights with Kelrev, but hopefully he can find what is required to follow up. Armariver has always shown potential, and indeed has won his last two races, but will be hard to place over timber off his current rating, which is probably why Paul Nicholls has enlisted the help of 10lb claimer Harry Skelton. A future over fences beckons, but he should go well. Santando needs to brush up his jumping and would prefer better ground, but he has done nothing wrong lately and has to be included in calculations along with Amour Multiple who beat another of today's rivals, Magic Sky, narrowly at Wincanton and who on today's terms, should just about uphold the form. Dhehdaah also finished ahead of Magic Sky when they met at Leicester, so there are plenty of form lines to work on. However, we are happy to side with Lord Of Beauty.
