Luck was with Cloudy Glen and Beacon Edge at weekend

Pricewise with a reminder of why the best horse doesn’t always win

DESPITE having studied what it takes to win horse races for more than 30 years now there is still loads to learn, but what happened on Saturday once again reinforced that the one thing any punter needs more than anything else. A good, old-fashioned dollop of luck.

I was very annoyed with myself for not backing Cloudy Glen as I’ve been a fan of his for years and know he is always best fresh.

However, I got over it pretty quickly becau se I thought Remastered was going to win by miles before he came down, and in the process he slightly hampered runner-up Fiddler on the roof. Throw in the fall of Enrilo and the quick capitulation of Eklat De Rire and, in my opinion, Cloudy Glen got lucky.

That is not to take anything away from him because he did everything right and got a brilliant ride. It wasn’t his fault that others fell, it is jump racing after all.

What I’m trying to say is that the best horse doesn’t always win the races and any punter, especially over jumps, has to realise that you can read any race right, back the correct horse but not get paid out. It is just what happens day in day out.

Of course, it works the other way round too. Anyone who backed Beacon Edge in the Drinmore on Sunday would know that because I thought he was about the fifth-best horse in the field of eight on the day, but he went home with the prize.

Gabynako would surely have won if he’d jumped either of the last two with any fluency, but he might not have if either Cape Gentleman or Midnight Run hadn’t fallen when having every chance.

Throw in Fury Road, who half threw in the towel after the last and I reckon if you ran the race again ten times, Beacon Edge would win a big round none of them.

That is not to say Beacon Edge isn’t a top-class horse, he is as he proved when fourth in the Stayers’ Hurdle last year, but he will be a lot better over further and on softer ground. In rugby terms he took one against the head on Sunday.

One horse who always takes luck out of the equation is Honeysuckle, who I thought looked better than ever when winning the Hatton’s Grace again, while Fanion D’Estruval is surely well capable of holding his own in Grade 1 company after his runaway win at Newbury on Friday.

The way he finishes off his races strongly suggests he is going to be even better over further and I can see him winning the Denman Chase at the track later in the season before having a crack at the Gold Cup.

Racing Post Ratings gave Fanion D'Estruval a mark of 164 for last week’s win, and while that is a stone of what will be required to hit the frame in a Gold Cup, he could improve a lot for the step up to 3m+ and I wouldn’t be surprised if he turned up in March with a outside chance.