driven to lead, ridden halfway, soon headed and weakened rapidly
held up in rear, headway on outer to press leaders approaching 2f out, weakened final furlong
chased leader, led well over 2f out, ridden and edged right approaching final furlong, ran on well
chased leaders, chased winner over 2f out, veered left under pressure approaching final furlong, soon no impression
pulled hard and held up behind leaders, weakened quickly over 1f out, eased when no chance inside final furlong
chased leaders on inner, ridden and unable to quicken inside final 2f, driven and kept on under pressure inside final furlong
Moonlight Man ran a cracker to be second in the Free Handicap last time and he can go one better here at the main expense of If Paradise and Millbag. A powerfully-made individual, the selection is sure to have benefited from his seasonal return and looks set to make up into a nice three-year-old. His stablemate If Paradise can also progress this year and has already won at today's level on his return at Haydock (Crafty Fancy has a couple of lengths to find on that form). However, that win was achieved on testing going and he now has to concede a penalty to all bar Russian Valour, which will not make things straightforward although he can still run well. The one who has to concede weight to the entire field is the good-looking Russian Valour, who proved himself a high-class juvenile before sustaining an injury when winning at Royal Ascot last year. On looks, he'd have a great chance but he ran very poorly on his first run this season, and his trainer was at a loss to explain that effort run. Millbag is another to have the scope to do well this year but the others need to improve on what we so far know about them. Once again, then, the selection is Moonlight Man.
