held up, headway 12th, ridden approaching 2 out, kept on one pace
led, headed after 13th, ridden well before 2 out, soon weakened
prominent, not fluent 8th and 9th, lost place approaching 12th, tailed off when pulled up before last
held up, ridden 11th, mistake next, soon weakened, tailed off when pulled up before 13th
prominent, not fluent 13th, soon led, ridden when blundered 2 out, soon headed, beaten when blundered last
in touch, headway 12th, ridden approaching 2 out, kept on one pace
in touch, headway 12th, led after 2 out, clear last, eased flat
The shortlist here contains Tresor de Mai, Tom's Prize and The Villager, with the vote going to Tom's Prize. Spinning through the field. Tresor de Mai bounced back to winning form with a good win at Exeter last time and, despite being raised six pounds for that success, he is still well handicapped on the best of his 2002 form. Il' Athou is now six pounds below a winning mark, so has to be given a chance on that basis, although he has fallen on two of his last three starts. Tom's Prize won a valuable handicap chase at Doncaster in March 2003 off today's mark Having put in a decent effort at Cheltenham last time, he looks set to go well today. Itsonlyme has to find a little bit of improvement to feature, but The Villager is probably on a fair mark if approaching his best and this decent novice chaser put in a good effort at Cheltenham last time in a stamina-sapper at Cheltenham so has to be respected. Much as Coursing Run is just a pound above winning mark now, this course and distance winner has been disappointing in his last couple of runs. Classic Native, who was a decent bumper performer, would be doing well to win on his chasing debut. Overall, then, we will just side with Tom's Prize.
