Knot In Wood

Knot In Wood ran a fine race to finish third in the Cammidge Trophy at Doncaster on Saturday. Travelling well just behind the front rank on the far side in the early stages, Paul Hanagan delivered his challenge between horses at the two-furlong pole. He showed a lot of courage to go between Tamagin and Hoh Hoh Hoh a furlong and a half out, and looked like he had every change of picking up Pusey Street Lady, who had taken a length and a half out of the field at that point, but that mare drifted towards the near rail and, while Paul Hanagan never really had to stop riding, she did encroach on his ground. Prime Defender came with a searing run up the near side to swamp them both, and squeeze Knot In Wood from the other side. Again, while it is difficult to argue that Richard Fahey’s horse would have finished any better than third even with a clear run, neither of those incidents helped.

Knot In Wood is a horse who always comes on for his seasonal debut. Despite the fact that he has won several competitive handicaps, two of them off a mark of 102, he has never won at listed race level or above. He is better with a little more cut in the ground than he had on Saturday, but he is obviously in good form, he should progress from this, and he is worth backing the next time he runs in a handicap over six furlongs either on Polytrack (a surface on which he is rated 6lb lower than he is on turf) or on turf no faster than good to soft.

28^th March, 2009