Jipcot

Jipcot kept on well from the rear to take third place in the three-mile handicap hurdle at Windsor on Sunday This was another slowly-run race, as evidenced by the winner's finishing speed percentage of over 113% of overall speed, and Jipcot sat well off it for most of the race Still last as they levelled up for home, he made good progress among horses on the run to the second last flight and, taken towards the stands side on the run to the last, stayed on well up the run-in to move from sixth place at the final flight to third by the time he got to the winning line.

This was a race in which, unsurprisingly, the pace held up well The two horses who occupied the first two places from early finished second and fourth, and Jipcot was the only horse who could get close from the rear An impressive winner over two and a half miles at Newbury just after Christmas, the O'Neills' horse was racing off an 8lb higher mark here, but he proved that he was up to this mark of 129 This was his first run over three miles too, and he was ridden conservatively He is obviously wholly unexposed over three miles.

When he won at Newbury, he was racing for the first time after a wind operation, and that procedure could have unlocked his latent talent He is only six, and he will be of interest in another staying handicap hurdle now.
Windsor, 19^th January 2025