Cloudy Too

Cloudy Too impressed in winning a good two-and-a-half-mile handicap chase at Wetherby on Saturday.

Sue Smith’s gelding travelled well out wide in the hands of Timmy Murphy, he made good progress down the back straight, took it up at the fourth last, and saw out his race really well. It looked as though both his pursuers, Dunowen Point and Lease Lend, were travelling better on the run to the second last, but Cloudy Too kept finding for pressure, seeing off Dunowen Point convincingly late on with the front three having pulled a long way clear from the fourth last fence.

The form is solid, the right horses chased him home. Dunowen Point is highly progressive and had won six of his previous eight starts over hurdles and fences and finished second in the other two, while Lease Lend rarely runs a bad race at Wetherby.

This two and a half miles looks to be Cloudy Too’s ideal trip, he travels and he gallops and he saw it out well. He is only seven, he is a second-season novice who is finally getting his act together over fences. This was his seventh chase, he had failed to complete on four of his previous six runs over fences, and there could be significant improvement in him now that he appears to have got his jumping together. Timmy Murphy could have been key in this regard, and his confidence should be high after this.

He beat his stable companion Vintage Star in a beginners’ chase at Carlisle earlier in the season, the pair nicely clear, and Vintage Star has proven himself to be a talented chaser, now rated 137. Cloudy Too has gone up to that mark himself after this, but he could be better than that still. He could be another horse for the Centenary Handicap Chase at the Cheltenham Festival, a strong pace over two and a half miles at Cheltenham should play to his strengths. He may be under-rated if he does line up in that, given that he will be a second-season novice racing against more fashionable freshmen, especially if Murphy is back on board.

2nd February 2013