Fastnet Storm led until a furlong or so out and then weakened, which tells its own story. As was always possible, it seems clear that today's race not an objective but part of the process of getting FS fit to win a decent prize, and he now goes on the watch list.
On my measure of career performance, there was no complete no hoper in the race but Handsome Falcon and Kiwi Bay came nearest: indeed but for his most recent run KB would have had no hoper status. In the event both were well beaten: KB came 4th, beaten 7.8l and HF 9th, beaten a touch over 11f.
HF was always a very long price on Betfair and too long to consider a lay, for a £1,000 would have been tied up just to achieve a £40 lay.
KB was a different matter but because of his last run, with the possibility of improvement it connoted, I didn't want to lay but rather to trade. Frankly again I found the market impossible to read and indeed I begin to doubt whether they can be rationally read. I was able to lay KB at 4.2 and back him markedly higher, but to much smaller stakes than I'd hoped and ended up with no money at risk and a small profit if KB won, which was not at all what I wanted. So no profit today, but again some satisfaction at passing on Fastnet Storm and identifying HF and KB as the most likely to lose.
