I think he was a tad unlucky not to win. Seemed to my eyes that the winner got the better splits than him up the straight resulting in him conceding first run.
Enjoyed today's racing and I'd give my 'Performance of the Day Bauble' to Star of Mystery. The 2YO daughter of Kodiac had them strung out like 3 mile chasers behind her in Newmarket's 6 Furlong Listed heat. She looks top notch, people. Star of Mystery's dam has already produced 2 Grade 1 winners in North America. And the winner of this Listed race, last term, went onto win a Group 1. That's the level I would expect Star of Mystery to be heading to in the not too distant future. That Northumberland Plate is turning into something of a draw dependent race these days. 6 out of the last 7 winners have now been drawn in double digit stalls. In fact the first 4 home, this time around, were berthed 14-10-18-11. Moving to the NH sphere (once again) anyone tempted by Trueshan and a quote for a top hurdling prize (33/1 Supreme Novices, 33/1 Ballymore )?!? Personally, I'm not as I'm a subscriber to that old adage re not being able to teach old dogs new tricks (the very earliest he'd make any hurdling bow would be just weeks before his 8th birthday). But any potential switching of codes, re Trueshan, would be fascinating, methinks, and could turn into one of the 'talking points' re term 2023/24. I see that Trueshan has had wind surgery, won't be going to Goodwood, won't run again until either the Cadran or British Champions Day, and that a NH campaign is being 'seriously considered'. All the talk recently has been about Vauban being the next horse to achieve the Group 1 / Grade 1 double on the Flat and over hurdles but could Trueshan do it before him???
Yeah, that's a fair assessment. Luck of the draw in these big runner handicaps sometimes. I see people criticising Murphy for a bad ride but that's just not the case here. I find most of these guys get the decision making right more often than not but then they are always easy targets for the 1 or 2 wrong decisions that end up losing. In this instance though it was just as you described stick, that's sport for ya.
