prominent, tracked leader 3rd, led after 4th, drew clear approaching last, easily
tracked leader to 3rd, prominent, pushed along approaching 6th, soon weakened, 4th and no chance, refused 8th
led until after 4th, chased winner, hit 4out, ridden and every chance when pecked 2out, soon outpaced by winner
well behind from 4th, tailed off
held up, in touch, headway 7th, pushed along when mistake 2 out, soon weakened
Fundamentalist overcame inexperience to land last season's Royal & SunAlliance Novices' Hurdle and is taken to follow up a successful debut over fences at Perth in September by beating My Will and Contraband. The last mentioned was useful over hurdles last term and faced no easy task on his chasing debut when a two-length second behind the more experienced River City at Aintree last month. Martin Pipe's gelding did not jump with any great fluency that day and is sure to have been well schooled since then. Given his connections, the son of Red Ransom has to be respected although a bigger threat may come from My Will. The four-year-old is an exciting prospect and the Paul Nicholls-trained gelding made a winning start to his new career when winning at Market Rasen last month. Having unseated Ruby Walsh here on his next start the French bred regained the winning thread at Warwick earlier this month. My Will has the advantage of chasing experience over his main rivals but Fundamentalist is potentially out of the top drawer and he will be tough to beat. The Nigel Twiston-Davies-trained burst onto the novice hurdling seen last term after showing decent form in point-to-points in Ireland and chasing was always likely to be his game. Nothing at Perth dispelled that view and Fundamentalist will be tough to beat. Ashley Brook was a surprising winner at Exeter earlier this month on his chasing debut when helped by the fall of Sporazene but still value for his success having made all the running and jumping well. This looks tougher though, especially having to give weight away all round. Similar comments apply to Nicky Henderson's Mambo, while Queens Harbour looks to be out of his depth in a race taken to go to Fundamentalist.
