19th January - Race review

Horse: Rougham
Advised Price: 10/1
SP: 6/1
BSP: 6.92
Finishing position: F

I said last night that I had some reservations about Rougham’s jumping…
Unfortunately they proved well founded, as he crashed out at the fourth last fence. Ironically, he had jumped well until that point and Richard Johnson was just starting to apply a little pressure to get him to close.
That tends to be the problem when a horse isn’t a natural over fences: they can jump fine when in their comfort zone, but when they are asked to jump under pressure, the frailties appear.
In fairness, exactly the same could have happened with Ockey De Neulliac on Tuesday - he was just never put under pressure ! With these kind of horses, you pay your money, you take your chance.

The race was won by Michael Flips, which was slightly irritating. I did consider having a saver on him – but he was a little shorter priced than I would have liked.
There was always the possibility that if he translated his hurdles form to the larger obstacles, he would be too good today – and that proved to be the case.

As for Rougham: he has the ability to win a race of that nature, but a smaller field will always help – and I also think he is better suited to just bowling along in front and trying to get his jumping into a rhythm…