Frascati Park

Frascati Park was weak in the market through the morning on Saturday prior to the Class 2 three-mile novices’ chase at Warwick, and there was no strength behind him on course either, he was sent off fourth favourite having headed the market in the morning. There was a question mark over his stamina for three miles before this, it was only his second try at the trip and he had been well beaten on the first attempt when jumping out to his left at right-handed Fairyhouse in a novice handicap hurdle last April, but he saw the trip out really well here. He took up the running early, jumped super out in front and he repelled all challengers, clocking a good time, the best of the day by some way. He did look in trouble when Alfie Spinner moved up to his quarters at the end of the back straight, apparently going slightly better, but Frascati Park picked up again around the home turn and kicked into a five-length lead. Alfie Spinner closed again on the run to the last but Nigel Twiston Davies’s horse jumped the final fence well and kept on strongly on the furlong-long run-in to dispel any stamina fears going forward.

This opens up options for him now at this trip, and as it was just his fourth run over fences, he can progress again. He is settling much better now than he did over hurdles, he was a bit of a tearaway in his younger days, and he is probably better going left-handed, even though he has been kept almost exclusively to right-handed tracks in his career. He jumped out to his left on occasion over hurdles and he has done so slightly too on his first three runs over fences, all of which have been at right-handed tracks.

He is not that big and he may not be able to operate over fences on soft ground, but he has plenty of scope over a fence and he stuck on willingly here, he is a doughty battler. He probably hasn’t had the credit he deserves thus far in his career, and he may still be under-rated over fences now after this. His handicap mark over fences, which a little surprisingly remained unchanged on 143 after this win, means he would be of interest if he were to go down the handicap route now, which is entirely plausible given he is trained by Twiston-Davies. He would be worth consideration if he were to run in the three-mile handicap chase on the first day of the Cheltenham Festival. Whichever route he takes, he is interesting. He is versatile ground-wise, it may be that he will be better on even better ground in the spring, it was much better ground on the chase course on Saturday than he has been running on this season, and he posted his most impressive performance to date.

14th January 2012