Nice One Eric

Nice One Eric put up a good performance to finish second to the useful Master Of The Hall in a two-mile novices' hurdle at Newbury on Saturday. Well backed beforehand, he and the rest of the field gifted Master Of The Hall an easy lead. Held up way out the back in the early stages by Jack Doyle, he made nice progress, still going really well, around the home turn, moved up in behind Master Of The Hall going to the last, travelling well, but the leader is a good horse and he found plenty, jumped the last really well and powered away up the run-in, as Nice One Eric's stamina seemed to ebb away. However, he travelled like a good horse through the race, he would have been better suited by a stronger pace or if the winner had been harried a little up front, or perhaps if he had been ridden closer to the winner.

Emma Lavelle's gelding is unlucky now to have come up against horses of the calibre of Master Of The Hall and Salden Licht on his last two starts, but he is useful in his own right, almost certainly more useful than the bare form of this race suggests. He could be an Aintree horse more than a Cheltenham horse, and he should be better on better ground. The right horses fought out this race, it was probably a good Newbury novices' hurdle, and he will be of interest wherever he goes next.

29th January 2010

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