Held up in midfield, headway when jumped right and nudged along 3 out, went fourth 2 out, jumped right and 5 lengths down last, ridden and ran on well run-in, went third final strides (inquiry into running and riding of gelding, which raced just worse than mid-division throughout until being asked for a hands and heels effort in home straight, until jumping final hurdle from which point gelding finished nicely to finish third of twelve runners, beaten 2 1/4l; jockey explained that, as stable jockey, he was given no specific instructions but as gelding was very keen and did not finish his race off on hurdles debut, he planned to switch gelding off by getting cover in early stages and ride him to hopefully finish race off better; he added that gelding settled better on this occasion thanks largely to a strong gallop, although he still raced keenly in early stages, a fact he reported at scales; he said he felt gelding's jumping improved once he found a rhythm and eventually settled after some untidy early jumps, before going on to say that down the side of course approaching home turn, he had been unable to improve his position due to finding himself behind rivals, all of which were not taking him forward into the race and thus prevented him from keeping in touch with leaders; this resulted in him being further back than ideal when looking to mount his challenge off home bend; however once clear in home straight gelding was slightly wayward and inclined to race greenly but still finished pleasingly and responded to his use of whip after jumping final hurdle, which is still approx 1 1/2f out; stewards noted explanation) (op 20/1)
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