Sargent Lightfoot

Sargent Lightfoot’s day may not be far away now. Fairly strong in the market before the two-and-a-quarter-mile handicap hurdle at Ballinrobe on Sunday, he was settled towards the rear of the field early on by Sean Flanagan. He had just three of his rivals behind him as they passed the winning line with two circuits to run, but he travelled well through his race, even if his jumping wasn’t overly fluent on occasion.

He made nice ground down the back straight final time along the inside, but he ran into a little bit of traffic as they raced to the end of the back straight with three furlongs to run and just one flight to jump. Checked a little at the end of the back straight, and only sixth as they started around the home turn, he made good ground around the inside, moved into third place on the run to the last, jumped past long-time leader Trees Valley at the last and stayed on well up the run-in. He just couldn’t catch the winner Ciankyle, but he stayed on all the way to the line to go down by just a half a length, pulling 12 lengths clear of the rest.

Adrian Murray’s horse ran better on his previous run too at Kilbeggan than the bare form of that performance suggests. He travelled very well in front that day for a long way before tiring on the holding ground. That was his first run since March, so he was entitled to get tired, and Sunday’s performance was a nice step forward from that. It was just his sixth run too over hurdles, and his eighth run under all codes so, still only six, he has the potential to progress again.

Ballinrobe, 6th September 2020

© Sportinglife.com, 7th September 2020