Eaton Forever now has a chance to post his second victory this season by winning the Challenge Cup at the Ascot
Eton Forever, trained by Roger Varian, is running the totescoop6 Challenge Cup at Ascot today, which the connections are taking to be a positive change of distance that will suit the horse. He has been persistent throughout this year as far as his performance
is concerned.
The four-year-old Irish horse, out of Oratorio and True Joy, has raced four times this year with Neil Callan onboard.
The team, the jockey and the horse, won once only at Doncaster. He has been ridden by Philip Robinson twice last year.
"He's not done anything wrong all year. He won first time and hasn't won since, but he's put up solid performances in some of the better handicaps over a mile”, he said.
At Doncaster, in April, Eton Forever had twenty-one other contestants racing against him but even then he crossed the wire before letting anyone else take the opportunity.
Initially, he just tracked the leaders stands’ side, geared up and led over one furlong out, keeping the set pace strong and consistent.
Dance and Dance, entered by Edward Vaughan, came second in the race and Brian Meehan’s Manassas was the third position holder.
This was Eton Forever’s first victory this year after which he has not been able to claim any race yet but the connections confess that his performances were not at all disappointing or disturbing even if he failed to win races.
He has raced at two Ascot events before, came fourth out of eight contestants and then fifth with twenty-seven other horses on the field.
At the Ascot, in April, he started off with tracking the leaders, was ridden headway over two furlong out but could not conjure up the pace that was compatible with the challenge on the track so he grew weak towards the final furlong with Andrew Balding’s
Side Glance claiming the title.
Later at the Ascot in June where the field was really crowded, Eton Forever raced stands’ side, in touch in midfield, put in effort by pushing along over three furlong out, chased and got ahead of leaders over one furlong out.
By the final furlong, as before, he could not assemble the speed to beat the tough competition. It was Walter Swinburn’s Julienas who won the race.
It is good for Eton Forever that he has had experience at the Ascot before and has not been rated miserably in both the attempts that he got a chance at.
Instead of getting weak in the final furlong and then losing, he should stay in the rear, gradually over take rest of the field and then burn with speed when he is into the final furlong.
This way he would not be all exhausted by the time he reaches the end.
Eton Forever should make most of whatever he got to learn specifically from the last two Ascots to perform and eventually win this Challenge Cup at Ascot.
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