Harry Cobden’s Planet Sport Bet blog: Bravemansgame wasn’t at his best

Saturday was obviously a brilliant day. Whenever you ride four winners on a day it’s brilliant and the fact it meant I was unbeaten on the day at Ascot was even sweeter.
 
Sean [Bowen] is still out in the lead, but we’re doing all we can to close the gap and it looks like I’ve got another exciting week with the likes of Hermes Allen and Complete Unknown to come at Newbury.

Here are a few thoughts on the four winners.

Farnoge

I was really happy with him. He travelled really well and it was a fair performance considering he had to do all the hard work from the front.

He jumped nicely and quickened up really smartly turning the home bend. He actually pulled himself up a bit going to the last but when another horse came upsides him, he picked up again. 
 
He’s a horse we’ve always held in high regard and he’s certainly going the right way.

Pic D’Orhy

We certainly didn’t expect the race to go the way it did, but he did what he had to.

The ground was perhaps a touch quick for him and he didn’t jump quite as fluently as he can, but he got the job done and it started the season off as we wanted.
 
It was a fair race to start him off in and I’m pretty confident he’ll improve plenty for the run. Hopefully we’ll see a better horse next time.
 
We’ve got a few options as to where we’ll go next, but nothing has been confirmed yet.

Blueking D’Oroux

 

 
It was a nice surprise. I thought he was good, but I didn’t think he was that good!

He travelled slightly behind the bridle and visually he probably didn’t look the winner jumping the third last but he clearly stays very well.

When he jumped the last he took off in my hands and in the end I thought he actually won with a bit in hand.

 

Regent’s Stroll

 

 
He’s a lovely horse with a fantastic pedigree. He’s bred to be very good and while he travelled nicely enough, he only really got going in the last 50 to 100 yards.

He’s certainly one to look forward to and one to stick in your tracker.

 

Harry Cobden's reaction to Bravemansgame defeat

I thought he ran very well and clearly just wasn’t good enough on the day.

It probably wasn’t his true running as in my opinion an in-form Bravemansgame beats Royal Pagaille.

His form is better than Royal Pagaille’s so it was a bit disappointing he couldn’t get past him, but he’ll live to fight another day and I’m certainly not giving up on him.
 
He wasn’t at his best, but horses aren’t machines and we’ll go again at Kempton for the King George.

Paul Nicholls is keen to get him back for Boxing Day and we’re looking forward to it.

Whether the Gold Cup has left its mark is hard to say really.

Obviously Galopin Des Champs was beaten in the John Durkan on Sunday and only a couple of horses that ran in the race have won since, but I didn’t think he felt like a horse that was feeling the effects of a hard race in the Charlie Hall at Wetherby.

I’ve always thought he was a horse that was best fresh so maybe 26 days between runs was a bit too quick a turnaround, but the bottom line is, he wasn’t quite good enough on Saturday.

We’ve got to get him right again and back to his best and if there is anyone can do that then it’s Paul Nicholls.