Breedsbreeze

A very classy staying novice chaser two seasons ago, winner of the Rising Stars Chase at Wincanton and the Feltham at Kempton, Breedsbreeze was mentioned here before after finishing a highly encouraging half-length second to Tartak in the rescheduled Peterborough Chase on his return to action after 20 months off.

Given the real promise he showed at Newbury, you would be forgiven for thinking he deserved to go off a fair bit shorter than 3/1 here. He had been a drifter all through the day though, markedly so prior to the off, and ultimately was beaten 16 lengths by his ex-stable companion Tatenen.

You can forgive him this though for a number of reasons. Firstly it was his second run back after a long (enforced) lay off and he was probably a victim of the dreaded bounce factor. (Although the Newbury contest was over five weeks previously, he had had a very tough race there.) Secondly, he made a bad mistake at the first fence and put in another slow jump at the fifth, both of which meant he was a long way behind passing the winning post first time and had to make up a lot of ground on a day when it largely paid to be up with the pace (the first and second here filled those positions for much of the last half of this contest). Thirdly he had been put up 2lb for the Peterborough run and so, even with Ian Popham’s 5lb claim, had to give weight away all round. On top of that, he was probably racing over shorter than his optimum again.

He did well in the end to stay on from five out to almost snatch second place on the line. He should improve drastically on this next time out, and this was after all only his sixth run over fences. Stepped up to three miles, it could well be that he is fairly treated on a mark of 150. He seems more of an Aintree horse than a Cheltenham one, as all his best form has come on flat tracks. In the meantime, he could be a horse for the Racing Post Chase, a race that is run over the same course and distance as the Feltham. His rating of 150 is ideal for that race, with five of the last eight winners rated between 147 and 152.

22nd January 2011

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