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Ryan Moore on his Friday quintet
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Point Lonsdale has every chance
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Banderas could give me winning end to festival
Will figure if he handles conditions
I don't know what went wrong at Doncaster, but if it was the heavy ground then he wouldn't want too much more rain. He developed into a good horse last season and, although 7lb higher than when winning at Chelmsford, he could well figure here if handling the conditions and a draw in three could have been worse.
Ground versatility give us hope
I thought he ran well in the face of a stiff task in Listed company at Kempton on his return and he had some very good handicap form last season, notably when winning at Goodwood and when fifth for me in the Cambridgeshire. The only problem is that he could be a touch too high in the weights now, but we will soon see. He appears ground-versatile, so that is a plus.
Has every chance based on Curragh run
A very good 2yo, we only saw him in the Guineas last season, so it was great to get him back on track and winning at the Curragh last time. He is fine on decent ground but it was heavy at the Curragh and he did it very well for Wayne [Lordan, the jockey], beating the subsequent winner Visualisation.
If he can back up from that run, then you have to give him every chance here. It's a good little race though and I thought Poker Face shaped very promisingly for me at Newmarket last month; he could be troublesome.
In-form stable out to overcome tough mark
I've read that Dermot thinks the horse has been badly done to by the handicapper, and he certainly has a job on off a mark of 108 here, but we can't change that.
The positives are that he won this race well off a mark of 104 in 2021, he handles any ground, and the stable have hit a bit of form at the right time. He won this off a long break in 2021, so the lack of a recent run doesn't bother me. I'm sure he will have been well primed for this.
Form says he should go close
He looks to hold strong claims on his Newbury run in the soft last time, and that is pretty much there is all to say about him. He should be going close, though a couple of others in here have a similar level of form and we obviously don't know about the newcomers.