held up, blundered 6th, headway, not fluent 12th, ridden and weakened 4 out, tailed off when left poor 3rd last
tracked leaders, mistake 4th, led approaching 10th, 3 lengths clear when mistake and sprawled on landing 2 out and headed, slightly hampered when blundered and unseated rider last
with leader until mistake 9th, weakened 11th, tailed off when blundered 4 out, pulled up before next
led until approaching 10th, ridden after 3 out, mistake and hampered 2 out, beaten when jumped slightly left at last
held up, headway after 9th, mistake next, disputing 2nd when left clear 2 out, driven out
A small but competitive field goes to post for this novices chase and the principals look to be Native Emperor, Fork Lightning and Celestial Gold and the confident vote goes to Native Emperor. The seven year old has been beaten in his two chases to date but they were above average sorts in Ballycasidy and Lord Sam. He is sure to have learnt from the experience and receiving weight from his main rivals he will be hard to beat. Fork Lightning rates the main danger he won well last time out when defeating Howdydody. However he will find this much harder under his penalty. Celestial Gold is also worthy of respect but he was well behind the selection last time and there is no reason why they should reverse placings. The remaining runners need to improve significantly to trouble the judge so the vote goes to Native Emperor
