in touch, ridden 3 out, chased clear winner from 2 out, faded
mid-division, ridden approaching 3 out, one pace
mid-division, headway 5th, ridden and weakened 3 out
in touch, headway 4 out, chased leaders, soon ridden, weakened 2 out
in rear, tailed off 5th, pulled up next
in touch until ridden 4 out and lost place
tracked leaders, ridden and lost place 5th, pulled up before 3 out
tailed off from 5th, pulled up before 7th
tracked leaders, ridden and weakened from 4 out, pulled up before 2 out
held up mid-division, weakening after 6th, soon pulled up
held up, ridden and outpaced 4 out, stayed on strongly approaching 2 out, ran on well
never a factor, tailed off when pulled up before 2 out
towards rear, ridden from 4 out, soon weakened
mid-division, weakened 6th, pulled up before 2 out
always behind, well behind when pulled up before 7th
held up in touch, headway and mistake 6th, ridden 3 out, weakened next
led, headed approaching 8th, ridden and weakened quickly next
With runners from the stable of Philip Hobbs generally running below par at present Limerick Leader looks worth taking on and we do so with Rakalackey, who gets the verdict over Material World. The last mentioned, who only has one eye, has progressed well from bumpers to make a winning start to his hurdling career at Folkestone prior to a couple of creditable seconds against decent types in the shape of Diamant Noir at Towcester and Krack at Ascot. Both of those runs have been under more testing conditions than today's, but the prevailing conditions should not pose a problem as the son of Karinga Bay won two bumpers on good ground. Suzy Smith's gelding holds solid claims but narrow preference is for Rakalackey. Henry Daly's gelding is a half-brother to the stable's Young Spartacus and seems to have inherited a good deal of his ability if judged by a debut success over hurdles at Market Rasen on his reappearance in November. The selection stayed on well to beat Samby (a good winner since) by five lengths that day and, with further improvement to come, he looks worth a bet. Limerick Leader has struggled under his penalty in his last two starts and may do so again, so a bigger threat may come from Henrietta Knight's Imperial Dream, who showed his best form so far at Exeter last time. The Paul Nicholls-trained Onwardsandupwards is probably a good deal better than he showed at Newbury last time, while other former winners Victory Gunner and Accipiter need to improve to trouble Rakalackey, who gets the vote.
