Not the best of results for punters. The favourite found absolutely nothing under pressure and the two fancied Hobbs ran abysmally and that is probably being kind. Sternrubin looked about the least ‘brave’ horse in training as he capitulated in strides once headed and War Sound added to his already inconsistent profile. Perhaps he only runs garbage when I back him. I will need to have suffered a similar knock on the head to his trainer when he made the Champion Hurdle entry if I even consider backing him again.
As for the winner he was very impressive granted an easy lead at Aintree. So much so I backed him against the shorties in the Tolworth. I know he was beaten by a couple of decent sorts but to my eyes he was pretty disappointing, dropping away tamely in the straight and never entertaining any hope of creating an upset. He didn’t look that happy being taken on for the lead either. All in all too many negatives to get excited about a much stiffer assignment where he couldn’t possibly get an easy lead. I think Sandown performance and today were chalk and cheese and perhaps in hindsight a left handed, flat track is his ideal.