Review of the day

As I said yesterday, February has been a bit of a struggle (mainly due to reasons out of my control), so it was nice to finish it with a winner.

More than that, the victory of Vision des Flos meant that all 4 months so far this season, have ended in profit.

In truth, I don’t worry too much about monthly figures (there is far too much variability for them to have significant meaning), but it does show that performance has been consistently good.

Now I just need to nail March, in order to complete the nap hand ! (no pressure !)

In terms of the performance of Vision des Flos, then it really couldn’t have gone much better…

He travelled like a dream throughout the race - and from some way out, looked by far the most likely winner.

I did briefly think that Lil Rockerfeller might be tough to pass up the home straight - but Rocky wouldn’t do that to TVB :-)

If the Cap Fits was gaining on Vision Des Flos after the last - but in truth, that may have been because the winner was idling.

If I’m honest, I’d earmarked Vision des Flos for the Coral cup at Cheltenham - but I suspect todays win will scupper that idea.
Still, a bird in the hand…

The opposite is true for Shantou Flyer - as he remains very much in the bush !
However, the important thing is that he is still in the bush - as based on his last run, that looked far from guaranteed.

He looked much better today though.
His jumping wasn’t flawless - but he was given a good test by Three faces West - and Southfield Vic got the run of the race - yet Shantou Flyer still proved different class.

Assuming Richard Hobson can get him spot on for the big race in just over 2 weeks time, then I think he will take all the beating.
He was cut to 7/1 post race - so our 14/1 now looks like a decent bet…

There were also 2 Mentions running on the day, and they had mixed fortunes.

Uisce Beatha was never really sighted in the novice chase - so much for the form book !
Chosen Mate on the hand, won the grade 2 novice hurdle.
He did so by only the minimum of margins - though I suspect he is better than the result suggests.

So that’s it for another month - and now it’s just 2 weekends to Cheltenham !

TVB.