led to 4th, tracked leader, led again approaching 10th, clear from 4 out, blundered last
tracked leaders, jumped slowly 1st, soon dropped to rear, not fluent 6th, reminders after 9th, soon tailed off
held up in rear and keen, good headway to lead 4th, headed approaching 10th, weakened after 5 out, left poor 2nd next, no chance with winner
held up in touch, mistake 8th, lost place approaching 10th, left remote 3rd 4 out
Kack Handed ran well enough on his chasing debut to suggest this might not be the match it looks on paper; however the form shown by Matuhi and LATANIER is undeniably the best on offer with the last named getting our vote. Venetia Williams' gelding has won two of his five starts over fences with the pick of them, a 34 length rout over Distiller, coming here at Ludlow. The ground was soft that day so conditions could be said to be ideal, with the concern being he ran no sort of race when held last time. That day he had gone well to a point before a mistake seemed to destroy his confidence, but if he's back to his old self and gets in to a good rhythm then he'll be hard to pass as the likely pace setter. Matuhi has 6lbs to find on the figures but would be the one most likely to benefit should the likely favourite once again make mistakes. Daryll Jacob's mount also put in his best display here at Ludlow when defeating The Package and, with that horse now rated 147, it could be a figure of 130 underestimates him. However, subsequent displays suggest he's no star despite a fair effort last time to a smart horse and we feel he'll once again find at least one too good. It could be that Kack Handed improves enough to take second here although Henry Daly's runners aren't quite in the best of form. That said, his gelding seemed to enjoy taking to fences when fifth in a good handicap last time so with improvement likely a big run awaits. Brimley was pulled up last time and a rating of 100 tells you enough about him whilst Varekai might not even be that good and has it all to prove having been pulled up last time, so we return to Latanier who really should take this.
Latanier (FR) 1-2fav (11-8) Led, jumped very low at 8th, 9th and 11th, belted 12th, soon headed and reminders, not jumped well thereafter, no impression 4 out, weakened from next, lost 2nd flat, 3rd of 4, 24l behind Superior Wisdom (10-9) at Kempton 3m nov chs (3) gd in Mar.
Matuhi 14-1 (11-4) Tracked leaders, hampered 9th, chased winner next, challenged 11th until not fluent 3 out, weakened 2 out, 3rd of 6, 23l behind The Hollinwell (11-4) at Warwick 2m 4f nov chs (3) sft in Jan.
Brimley 33-1 (11-3) Tracked leaders in 4th, pushed along approaching 7th, weakened approaching 4 out, tailed off when pulled up before 3 out, in a race won by Lady Bling Bling (10-10) at Ludlow 2m 5f nov hcp hdl 0-120 (3) gd in Mar, 13 ran.
Kack Handed 7-1 (11-9) Led to 6th, every chance 3 out, weakened 2 out, 5th of 13, 18l behind Russian Flag (11-5) at Warwick 2m hcp chs 0-120 (3) sft in Dec.
Varekai (IRE) 33-1 (11-4) Led until 3rd, ridden 6th, weakened before next, pulled up before 2 out, in a race won by My Skipper (11-1) at Uttoxeter 3m hcp hdl 0-95 (5) hvy in Feb, 14 ran.
