Crooks Peak

2nd-Mar-2019

Crooks Peak is not a massive price, but I think that he should be even shorter than he is.

Philip Hobbs’ horse won his first two bumpers last season and, while he was well beaten in the Champion Bumper at Cheltenham, he has resumed his progress this season over hurdles.

He won nicely at Exeter on his second run this season, easily beating Some Day Soon, who went out next time and finished second to last week’s Dovecote Hurdle winner Southfield Stone.  Then last time, he battled on well to beat Danny Kirwan.

That was only a two-horse race, which perhaps explains why Crooks Peak is not shorter today than he is, but Danny Kirwan is a highly-regarded horse who was well backed, and who finished second to Angels Breath next time in the Kennel Gate Hurdle at Ascot, and Crooks Peak beat him well.

He was keener than ideal behind the sedate pace that Harry Cobden set on Danny Kirwan, but he travelled well when the leader quickened the pace in the home straight, and he kept on well, despite getting the final flight wrong.

He should be seen to better effect behind a faster pace that today’s bigger field will surely generate.  A handicap rating of 133 for his handicap debut could under-rate him and, a six-year-old who has run just three times over hurdles, he has plenty of scope for progression.

Flying Tiger and Cyrus Darius were both on my shortlist, but both horses are obviously more exposed than Crooks Peak.  Equus Amadeus did well to get as close as he did to Al Dancer in the Betfair Hurdle, coming from the rear as he did in a race that was run to suit the prominent racers, but he is also fairly exposed now.

CROOKS PEAK WON (SP 11/2)