NO ROCKET YET BUT MOON UP

Jeremy Grayson keeps on track with the action around the countryside

- Jeremy Grayson

DONCASTER, December 12 (Good to soft, soft in places) 2m7f214yds Novices' Chase (class 3)

The “Chasing Excellence” series of novice chases has quickly established itself as one of the season's less successful initiatives, race after race reducing to contests of no more than two or three runners. Here was another match which, in the words of the late Jonathan Neesom, could almost have been timed with a calendar, clocking in as it did 20 seconds slower than the C&D handicap on identical ground in which MOON ROCKET had made a winning chasing debut a fortnight earlier. It was the plod round and late dash to the line rather than the win penalty which contributed to his tardier round of jumping and eventual half-length defeat this time, the race shape no use at all for one already proven as a powerful traveller over a flat track when there's enough pace on (hence previous hurdles successes here and at Southwell, and an Irish point win over Curraghmore's galloping line). This reverse does nothing to dent the reputation of Kim Bailey and Mat Nicholls' son of Doyen, and given a record at Doncaster which reads two wins and two defeats by under a length from four visits, the case for him as a Great Yorkshire or Grimthorpe Chase candidate this winter remains compelling.

LINGFIELD, December 13 (Good to soft, good in places)

2m3f110yds (+34yds) 0-95 Novices' Limited Handicap Hurdle (class 5)