Torn And Frayed

Torn And Frayed was impressive in winning the two-and-a-half-mile handicap chase at Cheltenham last Saturday. Prominent from early, he settled back along the inside, in the slipstream of the leader Coole Cody. His jumping wasn’t overly fluent, it never really looked like he was going to come down, but he didn’t make ground at his fences, which makes his performance all the more meritorious. As well as that, Coole Cody jumped to his right in front of him, but then moved back to his left on landing, so it was always going to be difficult for Torn And Frayed to get past.

He didn’t have a lot of room on the run around the home turn as Coole Cody came under a ride in front of him. But Sam Twiston-Davies was patient, he bided his time, waited until Coole Cody moved a little to his right on straightening up for the second last fence and, when he did, asked his horse to move into the gap. He had the horse to get him there too, Torn And Frayed picked up well and got through the gap just before they got to the second last fence. Galahad Quest challenged on the outside and he looked a big danger, but Torn And Frayed picked up impressive on the run to the final fence, jumped that fence well and cleared away up the run-in to win by six lengths.

It was an impressive performance by Nigel Twiston-Davies’ horse. He won with lots in hand despite not jumping with a lot of fluency throughout, and the fact that he was always in behind Coole Cody, who jumped to his right and then came back to his left, didn’t help. It was just his fourth run over fences though, he is still a novice, and the fact that his trainer was happy to allow him run in the open handicap instead of in the novices’ race is a measure of the regard in which he is held. The handicapper raised him by 8lb for this win to a mark of 139, but he won well, and he still has lots of scope for progression, especially if he can become more fluent over his fences. He does jump to his left, so he will probably always be at his best on a left-handed track, and he goes particularly well at Cheltenham, four of his best performances now have come on the four occasions on which he has raced at Cheltenham. He will be a big player in the Paddy Power Plate at the Cheltenham Festival if that is where he goes next.
Cheltenham, 29^th January 2022