LAST COMES HOME FIRST

Nobody is happier than Jeremy Grayson to see the return of jumps racing

- Jeremy Grayson

SOUTHWELL, 1 July (Good)

2m4f88yds (+199yds) 0-105 Novices’ Handicap Chase (class 5)

The honor of being the first winner of the belated 2020-21 jumps season might have gone to Messrs McManus, Nicholls, and Cobden with Nineohtwooneoh, but there were other performances of interest in behind in an incident-packed event. THE LAST BAR jumped more tidily and kept out of trouble better than most, and it ultimately looked to be the inadequacy of the trip rather than the 801-day absence she was returning from that condemned her to a near-20l defeat. Still raced only eleven times in over five years since moved to Dan Skelton, the lateness of her switch to chasing doesn’t concern overly, considering the Kayf Tara ten-year-old is a halfsister to Classic Chase scorer Milansbar (also fifth in a Grand National and runner-up in two Midlands Nationals), and assuming a clearer run of good health she can be taken to reward connections’ patience once stepped up to proper staying chaser distances.

1m7f182yds (+153yds) Novices’ Hurdle (class 4)

The time has surely come to switch RHOSNEIGR to handicaps, for all that a well-beaten fourth on this return to hurdling might well have owed as much to the ground having insufficient give as to the penalty for March’s Huntingdon maiden success (2m, good to soft). A 2lb drop to 122 since this outing gives a little wriggle room to a mark that wasn’t gruesome in the first place by any means, and it didn’t take very long after this fixture for the Kim Bailey string to notch up its first couple of winners of the nascent season. The gelded son of Iffraaj can afford to be taken very seriously in a 0-130 or similar, as soon as more ease underfoot can be found.