Broomfields Cave showed that when he gets his conditions, he is a talented horse.
He made it a second course and distance win at Wincanton when staying on strongly to deny a couple of horses who were trying to come from off the pace.
His jumping was great, and his attitude is just as good. I think he had more than what he appeared to have in the tank. When he hit the front, he was idling and only did enough to pull away from the others, who looked to be a bigger threat than they actually were.
Walkinthepresent probably bumped into a couple of horses who are ahead of the handicapper. He looked like he was going to be a huge player, then the winner loomed up down the outside, and you knew that was going to hack up.
Always A Reason 10/3 (1pt) – Kelso 4.46
I'm not 100% certain that Always A Reason will stay the trip, but I think he has to be given a chance based on how he performed last time out at this track.
I tipped up Diamond Dealer in the previous race of Always A Reason. I thought he travelled through the race extremely well, and I was concerned about him scuppering a win for me that day. Unfortunately for connections of Always A Reason, he made a bad mistake close to home, and that made life a lot tougher, and he couldn't rally to get the win.
Despite that, I thought that was a huge performance in a much better race than today's, and if he can put up a similar level, he should be winning this. He is still very unexposed as a chaser, with just four runs over fences to his name. From his four runs, he has won twice and had a runner-up finish, so there's a lot to like about his profile.
We know he handles the track, and we also know that he handles the ground. There's not much to go against him, with the main question being the trip. However, he won a PTP before he transitioned to hurdles, and that was over three miles, so there's enough evidence to believe he'll be fine.
The handicapper has given him every chance of getting this win today. He has only gone up 1lb in the weights, which is very generous, in my opinion. I think the winner has been a solid horse this season, and is progressing nicely with front-running rides, and will be dangerous to rule out in his races moving forward. As a result, a two-length defeat could have easily seen him get a 3-4lb increase.
GambleAware