Past Winners » There’s No Panic

7th-Dec-2013

There’s No Panic is not as unexposed as Buddy Bolero, but he is still not totally exposed over fences, and he could be a nicely handicapped horse now on a mark of 129. That is 8lb below his peak and 5lb below the mark off which he was twice placed at Sandown last season.

He seems to go well at the Esher track. As well as those two placed efforts, he also ran a nice race in the Bet365 Gold Cup over this course and distance at the end of last season, when he travelled into the race well but just wasn’t able to go with the principals from the second last fence. He did keep on reasonably well from the back of the final fence though, up the Sandown hill, to suggest that this trip is not beyond him. He is now 5lb lower than the mark off which he ran there, and that gives him a big chance.

He made his seasonal reappearance in the United House Gold Cup (at Ascot), in which he was pulled up quite sharply after a mistake down at Swinley Bottom final time. Like Buddy Bolero, he put that behind him with an encouraging run next time. Returned to Ascot for a three-mile handicap chase two weeks ago, he shaped well, he was always a little way off the pace but he stayed on all the way to the line to finish a never-nearer fifth to the in-form Night Alliance.

He has been dropped 3lb since then, which is generous, and that run should have put him spot on for this, a contest which, given his course form, may have been on his agenda for a while.

THERE’S NO PANIC WON (ADV 14/1, SP 9/1)