Time for Rupert to step up

The four-runner Betfair Graduation Chase at Newbury last month was an innocuous enough looking event at the time, with the well-treated Time For Rupert readily repelling the challenge of The Giant Bolster at the end of a steadily run affair.

Carpincho finished at a respectable distance back in third place, with Pasco fourth. Nothing wildly exciting in that.

Carpincho is the only one of the four runners to have run since and he landed the odds in style when taking an uncompetitive three-runner affair. While it would be wrong to read into the victory as a franking of the Newbury form, it certainly didn’t do any harm to the credibility of the contest.