10th December - Race reviews

I think this afternoon has to go down as disappointing.
Clearly it wasn’t helped by the weather, which denied the best bet of the day the opportunity to run – but the 3 that did compete all came up short.

First on was Oiseau De Nuit and he probably ran best of today’s selections in finishing fourth.
I thought he was sure to at least finish in the frame, as he mounted his challenge on the run to the second last. However, he just couldn’t find the extra reserves to get up the hill, unlike the 3 who were in front of him.
On this performance, it looks as if he is 3 or 4lbs too high in the handicap – though if he continues to run as gamely as he did today, it will be a little while before the handicapper rests his grip on him !

Next up was Quipe me Posted.
His biggest issue was the fact that he tried to take 2 or 3 of the fences with him ! He made a couple of shuddering mistakes and in a competitive handicap, you are simply not going to get away with that.
In the circumstances, he did well to finish sixth – but he will need to brush up his jumping if he is going to progress any further this season.
It was a bit ironic, but the 2 horses who franked his form of last season: Rileyev and Quianshan Leader both ran screamers today. Rileyev was nailed on the line by Astracad at Cheltenham; whilst Qianshan Leader gamely won the final race at Doncaster.

Clerk’s Choice was the biggest disappointment of the day.
I said in last night’s write up that I hoped I wouldn’t regret just having a point on him. Well, I did regret it – I regretted the fact I’d had anything at all on him !!
At no point in the race was he sighted with any chance. I guess he might have needed the run – or he might have gone backwards since his stable move.
Either way, he would be a difficult horse to support next time out…