Spring Loaded

16th-Sept-2017

Spring Loaded’s last three runs have been good.  Beaten just a length by Love On The Rocks over five furlongs at Windsor in July, he ran well to finish fifth in another Windsor handicap, run over six furlongs on easy ground, that is working out really well.

The winner Ice Age won a premier handicap at The Curragh last Sunday, while Major Pusey, Pettochside and Gorey have all come out of the race and won, and Englishman and Dougan and Gulliver have all run well in defeat since.

Stake Acclaim finished third in that race, two places ahead of Spring Loaded, and he is a player in today’s race, but Spring Loaded got going very late, and he was only beaten two noses by Stake Acclaim.  And he is a bigger price today.

As well as that, Paul D’Arcy’s horse did really well to finish third in a five-and-a-half-furlong handicap at Chester last time.  Drawn nine of 12, he was further back than ideal and he had to come very wide around the home turn, yet he finished off his race strongly to take third place behind Powerallied and El Astronaute.

The handicapper has left him on his mark of 92 after that, which is fair.  He can be marked up at least a little on the bare form of that run, and there could be a big handicap in him now off this mark.

All his winning has been done over six furlong, but he also has five-furlong pace, his record over five reads 442, so this five-and-a-half-furlong trip could be ideal for him.  Also, he has run well at Doncaster, and he goes well on easy ground.

I was thinking yesterday morning that his high draw (22 of 22) was a positive, but middle to low appeared to be favoured yesterday, which is a little bit of a worry.  Even so, it is a small sample size and it’s marginal.  The overall statistics for Doncaster suggest that there is no significant draw bias on the straight track.

SPRING LOADED WON (ADV 14/1, SP 12/1)