Any Given Day

Any Given Day was a big disappointment when he finished a distant fourth in the Rendlesham Hurdle, the Grade 2 three-mile hurdle won by Cross Kennon at Haydock on Saturday, but there were excuses and it might be premature to give up on him on the back of this run. Donald McCain’s horse travelled well, held up last of six runners well off the pace set by Mr Moonshine in the early stages. He looked to be easing his way into the race nicely soon after they jumped the fourth last hurdle, Graham Lee looked confident and he appeared to be travelling as well if not better than anything else, but he came under pressure fairly quickly in the home straight. He ploughed through the third last hurdle, the action of a tired horse and Lee was content to let him come home in his own time after the second last. He ended up finishing a distant fourth.

While it is easy to make excuses for a poor run, it is fairly likely that the bottomless ground and the three-mile trip stretched Any Given Day’s stamina, and it may be that he is a two-and-a-half-mile horse after all. If you can excuse him this, his overall profile still looks good and he could be underrated now. He was an impressive 10-length winner of a listed hurdle at Chepstow back in October, before going on to run a cracker to finish fourth to Menorah in the Greatwood Hurdle at Cheltenham. He was then mentioned here for his run behind the high class Karabak again at Cheltenham, where he made up a massive amount of ground coming down the hill, only to lose out by two lengths in the end to Alan King’s performer (form that admittedly hasn’t been boosted by the winner since, but, again, there have been excuses). He will be interesting now back over two and a half miles or on better ground or both.

19th February 2011