headway 8th, ridden 3 out, weakened from next
joined leaders 5th, ridden 7th, weakened from next, tailed off when pulled up before 2 out
made most, not fluent 9th, ridden out
tracked leaders, ridden 9th, weakened from next
held up in rear, headway 8th, ridden approaching 3 out, stayed on, no chance with winner
prominent to 6th, tailed off when pulled up before 4 out
with winner, ridden approaching 8th, weakened from 3 out
tracked leaders, went 2nd 4 out, ridden next, weakened and hit 2 out
held up, never troubled leaders
held up and behind, headway 6th, ridden 3 out, kept on one pace
This looks a competitive event with 15 runners lining up over the three-mile trip. Columbus deserves to win a race of this nature having found one too good in each of his last three starts but he seems plenty high enough in the weights at present and may again have to settle for minor honours. Toby Balding's Audiostreetdotcom does not seem to be the most straight forward of characters and, not for the first time was found wanting in the finish when second to Metal Detector at Warwick last month. Although meeting the runner-up on 3lb worse terms here, Kim Bailey's gelding is fancied to come out on top again. The son of Treasure Hunter failed to handle testing conditions when well beaten at Hereford on Boxing Day previously, had shown a liking for today's trip when beating useful yardstick The Lyme Volunteer at Taunton. There may be more to come from the six-year-old, who gets the vote. Jonjo O'Neill's Prokofiev is a capable performer but is unreliable and tends to win in turn, Fandango de Chassy probably does not have a great deal of improvement in him at the age of 10 and a bigger danger to the selection could be the Ian Williams-trained Ungaretti, if a below par effort last time is ignored.
