One to watch

Monster Munchie ran poorly at Lingfield finishing a well beaten third. It’s often the case with a headstrong horse that they don’t settle on their second run – Marine Boy was a good case in point. He ran a brilliant first race winning a 16 runner Newbury maiden by 7 lengths, but every time he went to the racecourse after that he knew what was coming and got completely overexcited. It was a similar stry with monster munchie – she had behaved impeccably on her first start but this time around she got rather overexcited. She’s no Marine Boy but she has a reasonable cruising speed and can ought to be able to win a race one day – she could improve in the summer but that remains to be seen.

Thingathong came out in a hurdle yesterday – my first runner with Donald McCain who is our neighbour at Manor House. She ran very well – she jumped like a baby and needs to learn her job, but her timing was fine and she put in a clear round. She lost her place half way through the race when she got a bit squeezed, but she stayed on and finished fifth full of running. She will improve a load for the experience and she may get a little further as well – she’ll be out again pretty soon and could be one to watch.

Today we have Theophrastus going at Folkestone. I’ve always considered him to be a soft ground type, but Nick is viewing him differently now – he gets through the sticky ground ok but he seems to get bogged down after a while and throw in the towel. Nick said this morning that he really seems to have come to himself over the last ten days or so, and he may be a spring horse. If that’s the case he could be a good thing today – I’m a little loth to follow him as I’ve been backing him all season and he hasn’t delivered, but it feels like one of those where the first day you don’t back him is the day he wins, so I’ll keep on with the same plan as always.