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Sorry for the slow response everyone. I've just been taking a small sabbatical.
We were obviously very disappointed with the run. He looked to have an outstanding chance on paper, and this was his seasonal target. It just didn't happen really though. A number of mistakes on the way round certainly didn't help. In the main he's a very good jumper of a fence, and there's a school of thought that hitting the last hard at Ascot may have caused him to start thinking about it a bit more.
The non-stayer view has also been discussed, but actually his best performance both over hurdles and fences has been over 3 miles so I'm not sure I subscribe to that. I can't fully discount that a step back in trip may be the answer though. I'm open minded about it, and we'll find out. I do think that he has a very different profile at stiffer courses though. His performances when compared to flat speed tracks is are very different, so I'll be interested to see how that plays out. It's also possible he's slightly better going right handed.
All these things are theories that need testing though. He came out of the race well and he's been given a speculative entry in the two and half mile novices handicap at Sandown on Saturday. He's not a definite runner though, and a decision will be made on Thursday morning.
We do know there's a very good horse in there, and the key next season will be to figure all this out to unlock his potential.
We were obviously very disappointed with the run. He looked to have an outstanding chance on paper, and this was his seasonal target. It just didn't happen really though. A number of mistakes on the way round certainly didn't help. In the main he's a very good jumper of a fence, and there's a school of thought that hitting the last hard at Ascot may have caused him to start thinking about it a bit more.
The non-stayer view has also been discussed, but actually his best performance both over hurdles and fences has been over 3 miles so I'm not sure I subscribe to that. I can't fully discount that a step back in trip may be the answer though. I'm open minded about it, and we'll find out. I do think that he has a very different profile at stiffer courses though. His performances when compared to flat speed tracks is are very different, so I'll be interested to see how that plays out. It's also possible he's slightly better going right handed.
All these things are theories that need testing though. He came out of the race well and he's been given a speculative entry in the two and half mile novices handicap at Sandown on Saturday. He's not a definite runner though, and a decision will be made on Thursday morning.
We do know there's a very good horse in there, and the key next season will be to figure all this out to unlock his potential.
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