Review of the day

After the first of his 3 victories at Sandown this afternoon, Aiden Coleman explained to the RUK presenter, that Saroque was much better suited to todays heavy ground, than he had been to the ground at Plumpton last time out - which was…. heavy !

He realised what he was saying as he said it – and then started to go on about soil types and the like – but I think he’s right – and he managed to hit the nail on the head, with regard to why it is so difficult to read races at this time of the year…

There is heavy ground; then there is heavy ground – and ofcourse there is heavy ground – all sound very similar, yet can actually be quite different !

Anyway, enough of the excuses – todays horses simply weren’t quick enough or weren’t able to jump well enough. That was the only thing that stopped them from winning !

The first tip of the day, Gandalfe, probably suffered from both afflictions – though he would need to have jumped a little better, for us to know for sure…

It was impossible to say whether Filbert was quick enough, because his jumping was so poor he never gave himself a chance.

The fact that he managed to briefly get into a threatening position at the Pond fence, suggested that maybe he could have been good enough. But the game is called ‘the jumps’ for a reason…

The jumping of Smoking Aces was actually significantly better than it had been last time out – but ultimately, it still wasn’t good enough.

He ballooned a few fences – most notably the third last - and in that kind of ground, you can’t give away distance and momentum…

Maller Tree was probably the biggest disappointment of the day, as he ran no sort of race.

He just didn’t seem to act on the heavy ground – even though he should have had no issue with it. I guess it must have been the wrong variety of ‘heavy’…

Needless to say his disappointing run was compounded by victory for Poole Master – the horse I considered putting up as a saver in the race.

Finally, Soll ran a fair enough race to finish fourth – but the race just didn’t pan out in a way that would have suited him.

He battled all the way to the line – but just couldn’t find the reserves to mount a challenge.

It was a disappointing end to a disappointing day – though I guess it could have been worse (if On Trend had won !!).

I suppose I can take some consolation from the fact that I knew what we were taking on this morning – and I staked accordingly.

It will never be good to lose on a day – but at least loses were at a manageable level.

Hopefully the weather will improve sooner rather than later – and I can stop trying to interpret the shade of heavy ground that the horses are having to compete on.

It would make life a lot simpler, that's for sure...

TVB.