21st-May-2016

Jallota was a high-class seven-furlong handicapper last season, he ran some big races in big handicaps, and he wasn’t beaten far in a listed race at Newbury in September.

He was disappointing in two runs in Dubai in the spring, but you can easily allow him that, and he ran a lot better than the bare form of the race suggests on his return to Britain at Chester’s May meeting.  He travelled really well through his race that day, and he picked up well a furlong and a half out, but he ran into a wall of horses, and rider Darryll Holland had no option but to stop riding, to allow him come home in his own time.  He appeared to finish full of running.

Unlike his father Barry, it appears that Chester is not a meeting that Charlie Hills likes to target so much.  He doesn’t appear to have his horses primed for it.  So it is more than likely that Jallota will progress for that run, his first run since his return from Dubai.

Actually, given how well Jallota has run at York in the past, it is probable that this race has been on his trainer’s radar for him since the start of the season.  The Rock Of Gibraltar gelding has run twice at York in his life, he finished third to Astaire in a maiden there as a juvenile on just the second run of his career, and he went back there last June to win a good handicap off a mark of 99 over today’s course and distance.

He races off a mark of 103 today, which is 4lb higher than that winning mark, but it is 9lb lower than his peak as a juvenile.  Jamie Spencer is on board for just the second time, and he could run a big race.

JALLOTA WON (ADV 7/1, SP 9/2)