Review of the day

A raft of non runners took much of the gloss off this afternoons racing at Leopardstown.

Plenty of trainers were unwilling to risk their horses on the unseasonably quick ground and as a result, the racing had a bit of a flat feel.

Unfortunately, only one of the days 5 tips, was withdrawn - which was a shame, considering how poorly the other 4 ran !

Gardens of Babylon was the first to race - and whilst he did manage to finish second, that placing is a bit mis-leading, as he never looked remotely like  winning.

He was laboured in the early stages of the race - and his jumping was hesitant.
To his credit, he did manage to stay on late to claim the runner-up spot - but that was a long way behind the winner…

It says much for the day, that his performance was as good as it got, for the tips.

I had quite high hopes for both Triplicate and Entoucas in the novice hurdle - but both ran lamentably…
On form, they should have been right in the mix:
Entoucas had finished second to todays race winner, last time; whilst Triplicate had lots form that tied him in with todays runner-up, Aramon.
However, that counted for nothing, and they were both already beaten, entering the home straight…

With Cap York a non runner, Black Scorpion was the only other tip on the day.

Whilst there was a little speculation involved with him, I felt he was probably the best tip on the day - so it was doubly disappointing to see him beaten at an early stage…

Maybe his last time out fall affected him - certainly his jumping over the first couple of fences wasn’t great.
Whatever the reason, he barely ran a race and was pulled up before the home turn…

As For the Mentions:

Then Le Bague au Roi took advantage of her 7lb allowance and was a game winner of the Flogas chase.
Not only is she very talented, she also had an admirable attitude to racing.
That combination will always be hard to beat.

With Al Boom Photo taken out of the Gold Cup, Cut the Mustard was the only other Mention on the day.
She was nearly a tip - and she nearly won ! (traded at 1.1 in running).
However, she didn’t quite manage to last home, and was over-hauled in the final 100 yards…

Safe to say, there will be better days this season !

TVB.