Lakemilan

Lakemilan stepped forward again to win the two-and-a-quarter-mile handicap chase.

Settled towards the rear of the field early on by Conor McNamara, she was good over the three fences in the home straight first time, with the result that she found herself in third place as they set off on their final circuit.  Her jumping was good down the back straight too, she was fast and fluent over her fences, she attacked them willingly.  She travelled well into the home straight, she made her ground nicely between horses and she jumped into the front rank over the third last fence.  She moved on easily on the run to the second last, and she stayed on powerfully over the last and up the run-in to win nicely from her stable companion Articulum.

Terence O’Brien’s mare has been mixing it during the summer, over fences and over hurdles and she even ran on the flat at Cork three weeks previously, but she is better over fences than she is under any other code. Winner now of two of her last five chases, and second in the other three, this was probably the best performance of her career, winning a good handicap chase like this as easily as this, and clocking a decent time.  She may not be one for the deep winter ground, but she will be of interest again now if she runs again before the winter sets in, and she is a mare to keep in mind too for the spring.  The handicapper raised her by 10lb to a mark of 140, which is not insignificant, but the quality of her performance merited a decent hike.  Also, she is only seven, and there is every chance that she is progressive enough to cope with a hike of that magnitude.

Cork, 20^th October 2019