Its a very small field at the 5 day dec stage, only 24 left and that will inevitably get whittled down further at the 48 hour stage. Its a decent pot for the winner so I can only assume its going related or a few of them waiting for handicaps at Goodwood maybe?
There is a horse in here who baffles me. He went off favourite for this last year off a mark of 99, didn’t look particularly well handicapped that day, finished mid-div. He’s back this year off 91 and has Mr Straight Track Ascot pencilled in to ride. He’s actually 3lbs wrong as this was an early closer and yet he’s been backed antepost again despite being on a losing streak of 16 races. Somebody thinks something of the Akkadian Thunder that he just has not shown on the track for a long time. Inside money maybe? The handicap mark has slipped at least but he’s still badly handicapped compared to his actual mark.