held up and soon hung left, never able to challenge
slowly into stride, held up, ridden and headway over 2f out, stayed on to chase winner inside final furlong
chased leaders, ridden halfway, weakened final furlong
made all, ridden over 1f out, ran on
chased leaders, ridden halfway, weakened over 1f out
chased leaders, ridden over 2f out, weakened final furlong
A low grade, but nonetheless competitive little contest with only 3lbs separating Blakeshall Boy, Zarzu, Delegate, Pintle Quicks The Word and Tender on official ratings, but as Pintle has had only the two outings to date and is open to more improvement, she could prove better than her current rating and gets the vote. John Spearing's filly made the 80 rated Manaar pull out all the stops to beat her on her debut at Leicester, and she proved that was no fluke when bolting up, in what it must be said was a poor maiden at Kempton. However, she could do no more than win impressively and in a quick time, so with hopefully more to come, she gets the vote. Without a win for nearly a year, Tender has turned in some useful efforts in defeat, none more so than when close up behind Ikan last week at Sandown. This looks a little easier and she should go well. Blakeshall Boy, a useful sprinter in the past for Mick Channon, will surely need this outing, his first for current connections after nearly 14 months absence, while the old man of the party, Delegate may find these younger rivals with too much pace for him over this quick five-furlongs. Zarzu normally plies his trade in claimers nowadays, but he has several decent efforts to his name including when filling third spot behind one Group 3 winner Proud Native at Sandown. A reproduction of that effort would see him go close here, but Pintle can only improve and is given the nod in a competitive heat.
