held up in rear, good headway to track leaders from 7th, chased winner 2 out, ridden to challenge last, kept on but always held run in
chased leader to 4th, in touch when blundered and lost place 7th, tailed off 3 out
held up in rear, ridden and no impression 3 out, tailed off
held up, mistake and weakened 2 out, 5th unbeaten when pulled up before last
in touch until mistake and weakened 2 out,
tracked leaders, went 2nd 4th, led after 3 out, pressed last, kept on well, run in comfortably
mistake 1st, close up, not fluent 5th, ridden 3 out, chased leading pair next, soon one pace and no impression
held up in touch, ridden and weakened 3 out, tailed off next, pulled up before last
Derivative was a decisive winner at Wincanton on Boxing Day and is taken to defy a 6lb penalty for that success and score at the main expense of Mr Cool and Monkerhostin. The last mentioned lost no caste in defeat in a more competitive event than this at Ascot last time and has to be respected dropped in class. A similar comment applies to Martin Pipe's Mr Cool, who faced an impossible task behind Baracouda at the same venue on his most recent outing but the 10-year-old seems to be in the grip of the handicapper at present. Shaadiva has won her last two, latterly when beating Diamant Noir (a winner since) at Huntingdon but has to race from 7lbs out of the weights proper today and is likely to find at least one too good. Turtle Soup has to race off a 10lb higher mark than when scoring at Warwick last time and a bigger threat may come from Redemption if the Nigel Twiston-Davies-trained gelding can reproduce the sort of form that saw him win at Newbury in November but a disappointing effort since then is of concern and a safer bet looks to be Derivative. The six-year-old has improved with each outing this term and won with plenty in hand at Wincanton so a 6lb penalty may not be enough to stop him following up.
