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Indeed, given the circumstances, an excellent performance by SALUTE for as the Racing Post reports:
“A disappointingly small turnout for this traditional staying handicap, but it produced a rousing finish with ODIHAM just getting the better of SALUTE by a neck in the dying strides. ODIHAM has a good record on Polytrack, including a Listed win over course and distance last season, and he battled on to just outstay SALUTE, who was a little unlucky in that he carried 2lb overweight and did not get a clear passage when trying for a run up the inside of the favourite well over 2f out. He lost nothing in defeat and, although he is 15lb higher than when scoring the first win of his hat-trick in December and will go up again for this, he has been rated as high as 82 in the past.â€ÂÂ
<br>Thank you Drone and Pod for your comments. I really enjoyed the race, delighted with his showing and even being beaten didn’t hurt too much in such an exciting finish. It was only justice as Salute had pipped another Morrison/Drowne horse called Michabo when he won by a head at Sandown last summer.
Where next will depnd on the handicapper and the ground – I made the mistake of running him on firm ground once too often in 2005 and he lost interest in racing for a while. Given he owes me nothing, he won’t be asked to race on anything too firm again.
My best estimate on the handicapping is that we’ll pay for racing 3lbs wrong today by going up from 80 to 87 – anybodys guess whether he’ll move his turf mark up in line with that.
The next option is an 81 – 100 2M handicap at Ripon in three weeks time, worth £20,000. At least the ground there will be fresh and not churned up by a winter of jump racing. In the meantime he’ll be entered for the Chester Cup and we’ll leave a decision on that until we have a better idea of what will be top weight and what weight that would give Salute.
The Chester Cup is a bit of a lottery with those drawn middle to high having little chance, and there’s also a doubt about Salute staying the trip even if he’s good enough. But as with any lottery, you have to buy a ticket to have a chance, and with £120,000 on offer, the prize is very tempting.
It’s great to be in a position to be faced with these sort of choices and it’s not something I ever expected with this horse at the age of eight.
AP
AP, well done on a terrific run with Salute. Fingers crossed that he will now be raised enough to get in the Chester Cup. For what it’s worth I don’t think he’ll have any trouble staying the 2 1/4m at Chester. The draw, as you say, is a far more relevant factor to the outcome of the race, but at the same time plenty of use must be made of the horse in the first couple of furlongs to assume a handy position. If you’re being held up out the back you will find it very hard to get in the shake up. Good luck.
Had the pleasure of meeting AP at Kempton yesterday.<br>A super run from Salute who battled all the way to the line. The leaders went off too fast and Salute got into contention entering the straight. I thought he wasn’t going to get a run up the rail but he got the break and looked the winner until collared by Odiham close home. That one is a listed winner though admittedly was giving away plenty of weight.<br>Easy to say that racing 1lb. out of the h’cap and jockey 2lb. overweight made the difference but I suppose Havlin knows the horse.<br>Interesting to see the h’cappers response. Odiham is reliable but a couple of the others looked gone at the game.<br>Salute seems versatile as to AW/turf so the Chester Cup seems a possibility though it is a strange course.
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