St Austell Brewery Handicap Hurdle

Off time: 13:47 | Winning time: 4m 7.9s

Esprit De Somoza³⁹

Age: 7| Weight: 11-12| J: Chester Williams⁽³⁾| T: Mrs J Williams| OR: 121

17/2

Won a jumpers bumper at Lingfield for Gary Moore in January. Limited impact back on the level for new yard and this first hurdles outing since March 2019.

Form: 35/P13P-

Celestial Force^p⁴⁴

Age: 6| Weight: 11-11| J: H Cobden| T: P F Nicholls| OR: 120| C

4/7

Fairly useful stayer on Flat who won pair of novice hurdles last autumn. Found the Swinton a bit of a shock to the system but can make presence felt in this band of handicap.

Form: 21325-0

Byzantine Empire^t²⁷

Age: 4| Weight: 11-0| J: P J Brennan| T: F O'Brien| OR: 114

2/1

Fairly useful maiden on Flat (stays 1¼m) for John Gosden. Progressive form over hurdles, landing a Southwell novice readily a month ago and his opening mark looks very fair.

Form: 5-31

Non-Runners

Green Or Black²⁶

Weight: 11-8| Age: 9

T: N P Mulholland J: Non Runner

Thahab Ifraj¹⁷

Weight: 11-3| Age: 8

T: Alexandra Dunn J: Fergus Gillard

Forecasts

Celestial Force (4/7), Byzantine Empire (2/1), Thahab Ifraj (9/4), Green Or Black (4/1), Esprit De Somoza (17/2)

BYZANTINE EMPIRE improved again when readily seeing off a next-time-out winner at Southwell last month, and having been allotted a very fair opening mark, is taken to follow up. Celestial Force found the Swinton too competitive but can make his presence felt back at this level.