CAPTAIN LEADING THE WAY

Jeremy Grayson has had more Jumping action to get stuck into this month

- Jeremy Grayson

STRATFORD, 9 October (Good) 2m70yds (+93yds) Novices' Hurdle (class 4)

An eyecatching, staying-on third when last seen at Ludlow five months previously, CAPTAIN ATTRIDGE was again doing his best work late on from an unpromising position on this fourth outing in novice/maiden hurdle company and is value for appreciably closer than the 371 sixth he ultimately recorded. Never an eyeballs-out front-runner during his Flat career in Ireland, and an 181 last when more assertive tactics were tried in a 9.5f Tapeta handicap on his debut for Henry Oliver, the Raven's Pass gelding continues to be ridden for luck in his new vocation, tactics perhaps likelier to garner him joy in more solidly run handicap affairs from here on. The assessor can be expected to err on the side of caution, but whilst high on the balance of his achievements so far, an official mark in the high 90s or low 100s could still prove conquerable. Effectiveness on ground soft or worse remains untested.

HUNTINGDON, 10 October (Good, good to firm in places) 2m7f129yds (+53yds) 0-100 Novices' Handicap Chase (class 5)