Lord Baddesley

Lord Baddesley put up a nice performance to finish second to Inch House in the Sir Peter O’Sullevan Handicap Chase at Newbury on Saturday. He travelled really well through his race in rear, and he stayed on strongly to finish second to the unexposed and progressive Inch House.    Chis Gordon’s horse is versatile in terms of tactics, he made all the running when he won at Plumpton last February but, racing over two miles and six and a half furlongs here, the longest trip over which he had ever raced, patient tactics were employed, and they seemed to suit him well. He was staying on well too, he shaped as if he could go out in trip again to three miles, and that would open up plenty of options. The handicapper raised him by 3lb to a mark of 132, but that was not harsh, the winner could be very good, he closed on him to just over a length and the pair of them finished nicely ahead of the talented Killer Kane. This was just his eighth run over fences, and he is unexposed over staying trips. The Coral Trophy, the three-mile handicap chase, the old Racing Post Chase, in February at Kempton, a track at which he has run well in the past, would be a legitimate target.

Newbury, 2^nd December 2023