I've followed Andy Holding on Clan Des Obeaux for the weekend.
His latest performance was a proper coming-of-age moment as he had every opportunity to shirk the issue all the way down the long home straight at Haydock last time out, but finding plenty for pressure having travelled best throughout, he eventually broke the heart of the granite-tough Vintage Clouds and that has to go down as a pivotal moment in his career. Moreover, the likes of the well-regarded pair, Born Survivor and Cyruis Darius were punch-drunk in behind and if you add on top of that, the fact that the five-year-old also covered the final circuit of the Lancashire venue three seconds quicker than Bristol De Mai, who couldn’t have been any more impressive in landing the Betfair Chase an hour later, it just puts into context the kind of levels the Nicholls runner performed to that day.
Prior to that tremendous effort on the numbers, he’d also given Whisper plenty to think about in a driving finish off level weights at Kempton on his seasonal reappearance and given what his conqueror went on to achieve in the Ladbroke Handicap (formerly the Hennessy)
The bold bits are enough for me - sea of blue on oddschecker but hard to be too bullish about any of the first 5 behind Ginge last time being great bets to reverse the form with any degree of authority IMO
Sometimes better to look for a complete different formline.
:highly_amused: