held up, badly hampered and unseated rider 2nd
chased winner, mistake 2nd, led 6th, headed and hit 8th, ridden and every chance when blundered badly and unseated rider 3 out
3rd when fell 2nd
jumped left, in touch, lost place 5th, behind when blundered next
led to 6th, led again 8th, ridden when left clear 3 out, eased flat
tracked leaders, ridden when left 2nd 3 out, no chance with winner
Hasty Prince was different class to these over hurdles and Jonjo O'Neill's gelding is hard to oppose in a race that lacks strength in depth and the main dangers are Green Ideal and The Last Cast. The last mentioned, a middle distance handicapper on the flat, made an encouraging return to the winter game when a close fourth off a mark of 127 behind Mistanoora in Chepstow's Silver Trophy last month. He is interesting over the larger obstacles for the first time and makes more appeal than Jimmy Frost's Wrags To Riches, who has yet to convince with his jumping in three starts over fences. The Venetia Williams-trained Jolly Boy had only one outing over hurdles in his native France and is hard to back with any confidence on his British debut, so a bigger threat may come from Green Ideal. Ferdy Murphy's gelding is more experienced than many of these and is entitled to come on for his reappearance behind Vandas Choice at Ayr earlier this month. However, the son of Mark Of Esteem lacks the scope for improvement of Hasty Prince, who is taken to atone for having slipped up on his chase debut at Kempton in September before going on to better things.
