Ikorodu Road

24th-Mar-2012

Ikorodu Road is easy to explain, he was unlucky on a couple of occasions last season, but things have clicked for him of late, and he is progressing nicely, even at the age of nine.

It is remarkable to think that he is still a novice, that when he won the Grimthorpe Chase at Doncaster last time, he was recording his first win over fences. He is a little bit of a thinker, he didn’t seem to like being in front when Pentiffic fell at the final fence that day, and he almost allowed Junior back up on the rail, but he dug deeply enough, and he still probably had more to give if more had been required.

His form this season is solid. Three runs ago, he was beaten just a head by Harry The Viking, again at Doncaster, and that horse beat all except Teaforthree in the National Hunt Chase at Cheltenham last week. On his penultimate run, over three miles of today’s track, he went down by just a neck to the useful Henrietta Knight horse Glen’s Boy, for whom there was an excuse on his only subsequent run when favourite for a good novices’ contest at Uttoxeter last Saturday.

The handicapper has raised Matt Sheppard’s gelding just 3lb for his last run, and that is lenient, given that he and Junior finished 20 lengths clear of Benny Be Good in third. He is a horse who only just does enough, and who sometimes doesn’t even do enough, so he is a difficult horse for the handicapper to accurately assess. If he wins, he probably won’t win by very far, and there are sure to be a few worrying moments up the home straight, but he does run well at Newbury (his record there is 323UF2, he was in front at the final fence in the fog when he unseated, and he fell at the first fence for the F) and it is easy to see him running a big race.

IKORODU ROAD WON (ADV 5/1, SP 4/1)

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