held up, headway 2f out, soon ridden, no impression final furlong
prominent, led after 3f, ridden and headed 1f out, no extra final furlong
slowly into stride, behind, headway 3f out, ridden and every chance 1f out, kept on well
led, headed after 3f, prominent, ridden over 2f out, kept on same pace
slowly away, behind, ridden well over 1f out, stayed on well final furlong
in touch and keen, ridden over 2f out, one pace after
in touch until weakened well over 1f out
prominent until weakened 2f out
tracked leaders and keen, ridden over 2f out, weakened final furlong
prominent until weakened over 1f out
slowly into stride, always behind, tailed off final 2f
A good competitive race for the grade and one that sets plenty of problems for punters in narrowing down a confident selection. However, Pay The Silver has been knocking on the door of late and, as the winner of this race last year, he is just selected over Noble Calling, Other Routes and Lazzaz. The Ian Woods-trained Pay The Silver acts well on an undulating surface and has hit form again at the right time for this. He does have a 12lb higher mark to overcome for today's renewal but is effectively only 2lb's worse off with last year's runner up , Noble Calling, who is another at the top of his game at the moment. However, the selection is tough customer to deal with when he is on song and he is taken to come out on top again here. Lazzaz should also be up with the pace for a long way and could easily run into a place at least. But he too has a little to find with Pay The Silver judged on their recent meeting at Brighton and is a risky proposition for win only purposes. Last year's winning jockey Christiano Fais teams up with the selection's stablemate Thesaurus, and the partnership are others to watch out for in the betting; despite having to concede weight all round.