Review of the day

As frustrating days go, today must rank as one of the best/worst of the entire season !

It all began with the first tip to run, Bentley de Mee.

With Melrose Boy a late NR, he ended up the sole selection in the race – and he probably should have won.

He tanked through the contest and cruised into the lead at the second last.

However, that just left him sitting duck – and Sams Gunner promptly took aim: ran him down on the approach to the final flight – and then powered away.

Frustrating !

The next tip to run, was Catching On.

The issue with him this season, has been his tendency to make mistakes, when jumping fences.

He was back over hurdles today – but he still made mistakes !

In truth, he also gave away the outside to no one, in a manner which suggested that his mark was still under renovation.

Everything will drop right for him one day – though I suspect I will have deserted him by then…

Tanit River was next up – and he possibly put up the most frustrating performance of the entire afternoon (which was no mean achievement !).

With plenty of pace guaranteed in the race, it was set up nicely for him to take a tow.

But instead, he tried to make all !

Whether his tactics would have been successful, is anyones guess, because he ruined his chance with a number of sloppy jumps.

Instead it was left to Pete the Feat, who should have been making the pace, to track it – and then pounce between the final two fences

Right tactics – wrong horse !

The fourth tip to run was Bonny Kate – but she just didn’t run her race.

I was a little disappointed to see her settled in rear again – though I don’t think that was the issue.

She simply ran no poorly.
To add to the frustration, the finish was fought out by Pairofbrowneyes and Space Cadet (maybe that was inevitable !).

Somchine was the final tip on the day – and I have no real complaints over him.

He was backed liked a horse who was expected to run a big race (20/1 last night: 10/1 this morning; 9/2 at the off) – and he duly ran a big race.
The issue was simply that he bumped into a couple of young improvers.

That was always a danger – I just felt he was worth risking at this mornings odds…

I wish that I had taken a similar risk with Goulan Chosen at Gowran, instead of making him a Mention…

I felt that he needed the race to unfold in a certain way, if he was to be successful – but that’s exactly what happened and he duly hacked up.

As for the days other Mentions: then Friday Night Light never featured in the Imperial Cup: and it was a similar story with Belle Amis and Princess Roxy in the bumper.

The final Mention to run was Bigpipenotobacee – but he was a horrible pre-race drifter…

A 7/2 shot this morning – his SP was 10/1 (bigger on BF).

When that happens, you can be pretty confident that the horse isn’t going to be troubling the judge - and sure enough he was beaten a long way from home.

By contrast, Lord Bryan was backed in from 7/1 this morning to 4/1 at the off – and duly scooted home.

It was almost as if someone knew…

TVB.