down day yesterday, all losers, lots of big priced runners running well without winning still but you need the luck on a day with a bunch of 20+ runner races. karoline banbou a good fourth, thought she might go close turning in, will the wise cantered through the pertempts before finishing 6th, was 2.9 IR turning for home. heart wood good second in the ryanair but i also laid the winner and masaccio a staying on 3rd in one the latter handicaps. -2.47u betting to win 1u on each yesterday mostly because of the fact to file lay, up 1.7u for the week. nothing too exciting.

triumph

i think the front two are correctly priced. if i was forced to bet one of the two at current numbers i would prefer lulamba but i'm in no rush to be involved with either. east india dock plenty of talent but do think we've seen how good that horse is and i wouldn't expect there to be too much improvement to come and, while they certainly do need to improve, i think there are a few in here who have the scope to improve a significant amount having had one or two runs. lulamba is obviously one of those horses and he has the least to find in theory having won comfortably on debut giving 10lb to the reopposing mondo man but that rival was extremely keen on his hurdles debut and it's tough to finish off a race having been that head strong so i do mark that lulamba performance down a touch. he travelled strongly, jumped very fluently and quickened up nicely when asked though so it was a taking performance none the less. he's got bundles of improvement to come. i'm reminded of burdett road versus sir gino at cheltenham in the colours of these two market leaders with the market favouring the more experienced burdett road that day too.

hello neighbour of obvious interest given how easily he won the last day despite a small margin of victory and the 2nd has come out and run a creditable race off 137 in a handicap this week but i don't love the general feel of that form and i think the hood first time made a huge difference to the way this horse travelled off a slow pace. he almost got run down by lady vega allen in a stiffer test of stamina at the same track a month earlier and i feel that rival may be better suited to this track and likely pace so i've bet her ew at 16/1 four places.

the other i have taken ew is mondo man at 22 and 25/1, would take 20, and while he has a lot to find with lulamba on their running i think he has the scope to be a lot better than he showed that day. he travelled much fresher than you would hope but the pace was slow and he hadn't seen the track for almost 200 days but he was still travelling powerfully jumping the last when he got beat for a bit of speed. was just as keen the next day off another slow pace and he had every chance until he made a mistake two out which put him on the back foot in a grade two before staying on through the line in ground softer than ideal on a track that wouldn't have suited a big powerful horse. the keen going nature is an obvious concern but he's ran in two slowly contested races to date which is unlikely to be the case here so it should help him settle but they've gone for the hood first time today as well which is another positive factor. the way he still manages to finish off his races despite being so keen would suggest he has a huge amount of ability which will only show if they can get him to calm down. it doesn't cost much to find out at this price and his upside is enormous.