Ciceron

Ciceron put up a good performance to land a Class 3 juvenile two-mile hurdle at Bangor on Wednesday. Held up out the back in the early stages by Aidan Coleman, who had apparently chosen to ride him in front of his stable companion Lively Fling, he made smooth headway through his seven rivals, tracked Devil To Pay around the home turn, eased past him between the final two flights, and came away on the run-in to win readily.

On his penultimate run before this at Kempton, the Venetia Williams-trained gelding had travelled like the best horse through the race, but hadn’t fully seen it out, he just couldn’t match the useful Anak for stamina on the ground. He was much more at home here on better ground, racing off a mark of 106 on his handicap debut. A winner on the flat in France last summer, he has raced just four times now over hurdles and, although the handicapper is sure to have his say, he can continue to progress now as the ground continues to dry.

3rd March 2010