Light Parade

Light Parade kept on well from the rear to finish third in the two-and-a-half-mile novices’ handicap hurdle at Cork on Sunday. Settled towards the back of the field early on, as she usually is, and towards the outside, she travelled well to the end of the back straight, and started to make her ground around the outside as they rounded the home turn. Wide into the home straight, she jumped into fifth place over the third last flight. She moved into third place over the second last, but the front two had too big a break on the field at that point, and she just couldn’t bridge it. In the end, she just held on for third place.

It was a good performance by Liam Burke’s mare, in a race in which the first two home were prominent from early, and racing off a handicap rating that was 7lb higher than the mark off which she won at Thurles six weeks earlier. That was over two miles, and a return to that trip might see her step forward again. A well-run two-mile hurdle on soft ground, in which she could drop out easily early on, could be ideal. She is still only five, and there could be a fair bit more to come.
Cork, 11^th December 2022