Reporter: Andy Gibson
Although the official going remained good through until the end of the card there can be no doubt that the going became slower as the day wore on given the heavy rain that fell well before the Haldon Gold Cup. This may well have played a part in the disappointing displays of JPR One in particular and perhaps Martator as well.
Given that Thistle Ask was competing from 4lbs out of the handicap off a rating of 136, I don’t think the handicapper had much choice but to raise him another 8lbs to his new rating of 144. Having said that, I doubt that any of those chasing him home, bar the runner up, were able to perform to their best thus leaving a quiet question mark next to the quality of this form.
He appeared to have the race won a very long way from home. As good a run as this undoubtedly was I doubt very much the third and fourth to finish ran their races. This leaves the solid handicapper Saint Segal to base the quality of this form on. This winner has been raised to 144 after his third success in a row since joining the Skelton team.
This Jane Williams-trained horse was running off a career high 148 rating having won a weakly contested four runner chase at Chepstow last time out. The runner up on that occasion was Il Ridoto who one would expect to be more competitive with that first outing under his belt. Saint Segal never appeared likely to get close to the all the way winner here and one would have to have to be wary of the form shown by those finishing behind him.
I doubt very much he was suited by the rain softened ground. Certainly his form on quicker ground stands above his performances when competing on good to soft or softer. When he won the 2024 renewal of this grade two contest according to the Racing Post his time was six seconds quicker than the one posted by Thistle Ask in this version. Although the ground was officially good throughout the card, I think it is very likely that the chase course was riding more like good to soft by the end of the day.
It was interesting to hear his connections state that he will need a longer trip after this disappointing display. They may well be right on this score; on the other hand, I would be wary of judging any of the Ditcheat horses at this moment in time whilst so many of them appear to be needing their first outing. In the two week period between 28th October and 10th November Paul Nicholls has enjoyed eight winners from 40 runners and seven of the horses that were successful were running for the second time this season. The only exception being Go West who beat one rival in a match race.
He would not have benefitted from the heavy rain as he is one of the few horses in the Venetia Williams yard that seems suited by a quicker surface.
