Although it is probably unwise to make any broad sweeping statement on such a small snap-shot of results from the first meeting on Lingfield Park's newly laid surface, it was noticeable that the wider you raced down the straight the faster you finished.
In not one of the eight races did we see a horse finishing fast to grab glory in the final strides coming up the inside rail, but a few of them where ground down in the final strides by horses challenging wide.
Due to the fierceness of Lingfields final bend there is a tendency to sling-shot off the bend which naturally brings horses of the rail rather than lose imputes by attempting to follow the contours of the bend but past races have seen plenty of horses cut back inside to deliver a challenge and go on to win.
Whether it should be viewed as a surprise that L'Hirondelle took the last race at odds of 33-1 when it has been competitive in far better company than this but what was curious is that Joe Fanning led and raced three wide for almost the entire mile until cutting the final bend before tracking wide again holding of the challenge of Daruband coming up its inside!.
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