Sarando

Sarando ran a cracker to finish second to The Minack in a really good two-and-a-half-mile novices' hurdle at Huntingdon on Thursday. Settled nicely just behind the early leader Night Orbit in the early stages, he moved nicely down the back straight, and actually looked to be travelling slightly better than the ultimate winner as he moved up on the inside going around the home turn. He was a half a length down at the second last, but was finding plenty on the far side when a bad mistake at the last effectively ended his chance. He lost his hind legs on landing over that obstacle, and with them all real chance, but he got balanced quickly and rallied gamely to go down by just a length, with a fair distance back to the potentially high class Master Of The Hall back in third. Moderate on the flat and apparently moderate over hurdles in the early part of this season, Paul Webber's gelding gave the talented Salden Licht a fright at Plumpton in January and proceeded to build on that, winning on heavy ground at Lingfield before putting in this performance, by far the best of his life. He can continue to progress now. He is entered in the Coral Cup, the County Hurdle and the Conditional Jockeys' Handicap Hurdle at Cheltenham, and he will be of interest in any race that he contests if it happened to come up soft. He is not proven on good ground, and it may be that he needs to get his toe in in order to be seen at his best, but he is an interesting prospect now.

25th February 2010