The tactics were simply jockeys playing silly buggers to a degree but you can understand what Nico did because he undoubtedly is/was on the quicker horse and would have been happy for the race to be turned into a sprint off the home turn.
We knew from Newcastle that Harry would have been hell bent on getting some sort of lead and being nowhere near the front, ideally he would have wanted Namean Lion to set a good strong pace to place more emphasis on TNL strong suit…his stamina (having won over 2m5f at last year’s Festival).
If that had happen and he had then managed to drop in behind Nico as well, that would likely have been his ideal scenario pre race – as the raced turned out, TNL was still tapped for toe by the other two off the turn and it took him until halfway up the run before that stamina kicked in and by the line he was firmly on top and drawing clear.
Being that it is highly likely that he will be held up in the Champion, I am still of the opinion that JP should have looked into using a pacemaker to ensure that there would be a decent gallop and not be a hostage to fortune in hoping someone else makes it a good test, a slower run tactical race will likely find him out as he doesn’t seem to have the tactical speed to deal with that type of scenario.
To me Willie simply has to run Lossiemouth in the Champion Hurdle now (assuming all goes well at the DRF), I think she has more basic speed than TNL (afterall only 5 of her 13 wins have come over further than 2m1f) and we know she also stays 2m4f very well so her being outstayed by TNL is not guaranteed and at age 7, one could argue she is certainly the right age as 4 of the last 8 winners of the race were 7 (including Honeysuckle and Golden Ace).