Review of the day

There were 4 tips across 3 races this afternoon, and Audacious Plan performed much the best of them…

As so often happens, the market suggested that would be case, with him backed in from an early 14/1, to 5/1 at the off.

He travelled through the race with purpose – but unfortunately, so too did Ballybroker Breeze.

He was even stronger in the market than Audacious Plan – and he was stronger in the race as well.

Audacious Plan ran a good race to finish third – with Kaki De Le Pree sandwiched between the pair…

Things didn’t go quite so well at Cheltenham.

In handicap chase, Out Sam and A Good Skin were both strong in the market (backed in to 5/1 joint favs at the off ).

However, Out Sams jumping was poor and he had already made a number of mistakes when he finally came down at the third last fence.

He may be a well handicapped horse - but his jumping isn’t good enough for Cheltenham.

There were no issues with A Good Skins jumping. He was close to the pace, until it quickened coming down the hill.

That caught him out and he could only plug on for fourth place.

I was actually more disappointed by his effort, because there were no excuses and I thought he was better than that.

The final tip to run was Bertie Boru – however, he didn’t really seem to take to the cross country course.

I guess he still had a remote chance when he was impeded and unseated – but I doubt very much he would have been involved in the finish.

He was a risky one – and the risk didn’t come off…

The opening race on the card was won quite impressively, by Singlefarmpayment – though I maintain my view that he isn’t really of the standard you would expect to be winning a race of that nature.

His future looks more in handicaps than in graded chases.

The mares handicap chase turned into something of a war of attrition – with most of the runners making numerous blunders.

Still Believing won by virtue of the fact she made least errors – and keep galloping when the others had cried enough.

2 of the unexposed runners fought out the finish to the long distance handicap hurdle, with Call to Order getting the better of For Good Measure.

Eye catcher Valhalla briefly flattered (again  !) but ended up finishing third (roughly where I expected him to be !).

Anteros ran a really good race, but found the combination of the extra 7lb; the slightly hotter company and the quicker ground, just too much to handle.

He remains one to keep on the right side of though…

In the 2 mile handicap hurdle, the unexposed runners didn’t feature in the finish.

It looked a bit too much for all of them – and 3 of the more seasoned campaigners ended up fighting out the finish.

Whilst in the finale, Sumkindofking was readily brushed aside by a host of his rivals.

It did look a potentially hot race – though I suspect he didn’t perform to his best…

TVB.