Bobo Mac

Bobo Mac ran better than the bare form of his performance suggests in the Welsh National on Saturday. Dropped in towards the rear of the field, second last of the 18 runners as they started off down the back straight first time, he travelled and jumped well through the early part of the race for Adrian Heskin. He was going well in mid-division and along the inside, when he made a significant mistake at the second last fence on the first circuit, which didn’t help. He did recover his equilibrium, and he made good ground down the back straight final time to move into a nice position as they raced around the home turn, along the inside and not more than four lengths behind the leader. He travelled as well as any of his rivals on the run to the fifth last fence, and he did pick up when he rider asked him to from the fourth last fence. But he wasn’t overly fluent at the third last, and his stamina appeared to ebb from that point. It appeared as though he tired over the last two fences and up the run-in, finishing just sixth in the end, nine lengths behind the impressive winner Secret Reprieve, but it was still a fine performance, over this extreme distance.

Bobo Mac raced over a distance in excess of three and a quarter miles just once before, in the Classic Chase at Warwick last January, when he again weakened late on and finished only seventh behind Kimberlite Candy. He should do better now, dropped back to three miles or three and a quarter miles. As well as that, he raced in rear on Saturday in a race in which the prominent racers did best. He was the only one of the first seven home who was worse than midfield early on, and the second and fourth, The Two Amigos and Yala Enki, raced in first and second respectively from flagfall. Tom Symonds’ horse has just turned 10, but he is still relatively lightly raced over fences, and he will be of interest again now in a three-mile handicap chase off his current mark in the mid-130s. He holds an entry in the Sky Bet Chase at Doncaster at the end of this month, and he could be an interesting outsider if he took his chance in that.
Chepstow 9^th January 2021