held up in touch, dropped rear 7th, mistake next and soon weakened, tailed off and pulled up before 2 out
tracked leaders, headway 4 out, led next, ridden out
held up, mistake 7th, effort when mistake 4 out, soon outpaced
tracked leader, disputed lead from 6th to 7th, ridden and weakened after 4 out
made most to 3 out, soon ridden, one paced approaching last
On bare form figures, this looks to be a match between Castle Richard and Ballystone. With Tony Dobbin riding plenty of winners in the North, we'll trust his judgement and go with the latter. The fortunes of Lenny Lungo's stable have brightened significantly over the last couple of weeks and Ballystone is equally effective over fences and hurdles. Castle Richard has done nothing wrong and is open to improvement. He battled well to defy Silver Knight at Sedgefield but that penalty for the victory could be his undoing here. Blood Sub has been well supported on his two starts and any support in him would be interesting as Liam Cooper reported that the gelding had a breathing problem when posting a below-par run at Exeter last time out. The remainder have yet to win a race between them and will need to improve dramatically in order to take a hand in the finish.
