Just a school around for Black Op there, none of the horses he beat are better than handicappers going forward.
The test for Black Op will be when he's against good horses that put his jumping under pressure! He failed against Defi Du Seuil and Lostintranslation twice last season... but they went right to the top of the tree in the Novice Chase division, and in fairness despite poor jumping he doesn't have LOADS to make up.
If his jumping holds up, it could make up those 4 and 7L defeats, putting him "right in the mix" for Novice Chases this time around...
On the other hand, he's going to be 9, has just won at Stratford and I can't think of many horses that would have that profile that'd be winning festival races off the top of my head.
A nice price at circa 25/1 for everybody on... but my gut tells me he isn't a festival winner in waiting. Definitely not saying he isn't a horse that can be in the mix.... he's still available at 16s which isn't a mean price... but I am tryring to be more selective this year and I'm going to leave him until halfway through a race where I've seen him jumping well at a faster pace (or under pressure) etc.