The Bosses Oscar

The Bosses Oscar was a beaten favourite in the three-mile handicap hurdle, but he still ran well in defeat. Flooring Porter led from flagfall and ran out an impressive winner, but The Bosses Oscar travelled well through his race. He had to be ridden along a little by Jack Kennedy across the top of the track, but he came back on the bridle at the top of the home straight and, while the winner skipped clear, Gordon Elliott’s horse stayed on well to just get up and take the runner-up spot, despite making a mistake at the second last flight.

This was just the Oscar gelding’s sixth run over hurdles and his seventh run under Rules. On his previous run, his seasonal debut, he put up a nice performance to win a two-mile-six-furlong hurdle at Thurles. He stayed on well to hold on from Rightplacerightime, and he kept the race in the stewards’ room having come across the runner-up on the run-in. He was a bit unlucky not to finish better than fifth in the Martin Pipe Hurdle at Cheltenham last March. He was well back in the field on the run down the hill that day, but he was staying on well from the home turn, when he was slightly hampered by the fall of his stable companion Column Of Fire at the last, where he also made a mistake. He could still be a well-handicapped horse on a mark of 138, and he could be a horse for the Pertemps Final in March, a race that his trainer has won for the last three years, and in which he has fielded the 1-2 in two of them.

Navan, 5^th December 2020