tracked clear leader, with leader 11th and 15th, ridden to lead flat, caught close home
held up rear, headway 11th, jumped in to lead 2 out, blundered last, weakened and headed flat
led, soon clear, hard driven when ran wide after 7th (water), not fluent next, joined 11th and 15th, blundered and lost lead 2 out, weakened before last
held up, headway from 2 out, went 3rd last, ran on under pressure to lead close home
always towards rear, tailed off from 13th, pulled up before next
tracked leaders, not fluent 4th, ridden and weakened 13th, soon tailed off
Nonrunner
The shortlist here consists of See You Sometime, Grey Report and Val du Ron, with the vote going to Val du Ron. Spinning through the field and See You Sometime is clearly the class act, having beaten My Will in a Grade 2 novices' chase at Warwick two runs ago. He fell at Cheltenham last time but is very talented and, even with his welter burden, cannot be ruled out of things. Captain Corelli made a pleasing chasing debut at Chepstow behind Le Passing and he too can go well. Grey Report was high class in novice hurdles last season, finishing third at Cheltenham and second at Aintree in major events. Much as he has been a little disappointing so far this season, he now switches to fencing and it could well prove a different story. Mixsterthetixster has done reasonably well over fences, but is nothing out of the ordinary, while the French winner Macmar did not show too much on his British chasing debut, which came here over a shorter trip than today. Lightly raced, though, he should improve, while the other five-year-old in the line-up, Val du Ron, is also a French winner, and ran pretty well on his chasing debut in this country when chasing home Le Seychellois. That winner is highly rated and, despite the fact that Nicky Henderson's stable is not firing at present, Val du Ron looks to hold solid claims if at or near his best and, particularly if Papini has run well in the opener, gets our vote here.
