led narrowly, driven and hard pressed over 2f out, soon ridden, headed over 1f out, kept on final furlong, always held
dwelt badly, in rear, pushed along over 4f out, lost touch 2f out
tracked leading pair, went 2nd over 4f out, challenged going well over 2f out, shaken up to lead over 1f out, driven out final furlong
with leader, lost place over 4f out, outpaced over 3f out, no chance with leding pair final 2f
A tricky contest as Avon River is well clear on official figures, but cannot be trusted to run up to his rating. He was 10lb well-in with the winner Miami Gator on his penultimate start, but could only manage third-place and could be worth taking on with ROYAL OPERA. The latter may prove difficult to pass if allowed an easy lead and makes more appeal than Yellow Printer, whose only win was back in 2008, while the newcomer Midnight Tiger is hard to fancy making his belated debut at this level.
Avon River 4-1 (9-8) Switched to race alone on stands rail and with leaders, ridden and weakened 2f out, last of 10, 31l behind Woodcote Place (9-12) at Newbury 7f clm stks (5) gd.
Midnight Tiger Advise gelding out of Midnight Pebbles.
Royal Opera 8-1 (9-4) Soon led, ridden and headed 2f out, chased winner, no impression over 1f out, no extra in 3rd inside final furlong, 3rd of 8, 4l behind Sciampin (8-11) at Salisbury 1m 2f hcp 0-70 (5) gf.
Yellow Printer 20-1 (9-10) Led until over 3f out, weakened over 2f out, 10th of 12, 26l behind Whodathought (9-10) at Salisbury 1m ladies hcp 0-70 (5) gs.