One of those days

Following the successes of No Drama This End and Panic Attack on the first two days of the Paddy Power meeting at Cheltenham, it was very much a case of coming back down to earth with a bang on Sunday. Everything that could go wrong managed to do so. It was a poor afternoon for the November Update with the selections failing to trouble the judge. 

Jig's Forge ran a sound race on his fencing debut in the novices' handicap chase finishing third. Ben Pauling's runner lacked the pace between the final two fences possibly finding the two and a half miles trip on the sharp side. Beaten around three lengths, he reportedly didn't stay three miles over hurdles last season and may want somewhere in between. 

Tanganyika hit 11/10 in running coming down the hill in the staying handicap chase but folded once headed by the time he had reached the hometurn. Venetia Williams' charge was making his seasonal reappearance and appeared to have all his rivals in trouble between the fourth and third last fences. However, he had been ridden prominently from the outset sharing the advantage with Protketorat and probably paid for that. 

As far as the Greatwood Hurdle is concerned, Mirabad didn't give himself a chance having raced too keenly during the first half of the contest. The former Dr Richard Newland trainer runner has always raced keenly and, it was a similar story here as Harry Skelton tried to settle him behind the leaders. The five year old eventually pulled his way to the front towards the end of the backstraight and weakened tamely soon after the second last. The other selection Fiercely Proud stayed on to finish a never nearer fifth. There were no excuses for him - he wasn't good enough and is likely to go chasing now.

In terms of the Top 40, Salsinha was the only runner on Sunday and she fared better than her finishing position of fourth suggests. An impressive winner of a bumper at Cork during the summer, she lined up in the two miles mares' novice hurdle at Navan. Run at a funereal pace - 44 seconds outside the standard and ten seconds slower than the opening juvenile hurdle - Henry De Bromhead's runner was trapped in behind the pace setters once the tempo finally lifted between the final two flights. Pulled to the outside once seeing daylight, she stayed on well and was beaten less than three lengths. Faring best of the four year olds in the line-up, she remains a promising filly with a bright future. 

Saint Clovis was a comfortable winner of the Listed bumper at Cheltenham - Thomas Cooper's four year old chased home Top 40 entry Mister Pessimistic in a bumper at the Listowel Festival in September on his previous outing. That was an encouraging form boost for the unbeaten Henry De Bromhead trained gelding who has won over hurdles at Cork since, too.