As noted on the Ballymore thread, the Ballymore Leamington Novices' Hurdle was a new course record, which only aids to my list of positives for Rockpoint. He set the fractions, and would have always been outpaced over shorter than 3m and on a flat track once those with real gears kicked for home, yet he was only beat by 9 3/4 lengths, giving 5lb's.
As noted earlier in the thread, being a French bred is particularly damning for the race but even with the French breeding stat it should be noted again that he is a half brother to Minella Rocco, Annie Power & most notably in recent times, Santini, who looks to want every yard of 3m and ran in this race to finish 3rd with plenty more stats against him than Rockpoint does.
Given the betting/race is still wide open, and the likely lack of runs for many currently in the betting, 25/1 still seems ridiculous for a horse with C&D form, albeit may not be the strongest of races, but there is improvement to come from him over the trip as well.
Right now I am looking down the betting, struggling to find a horse with form in the book that fits the trends I personally stick to, that I can oppose Rockpoint with.
Really hope we see Carefully Selected soon as he would be one of interest, though as noted by HF, he would not meet the 4 runs in a season trend, although that is not one of my 'priority' stats.