NAP of the Day: Catch Him if you can

No luck with the latest NAP of the Day, who drifted like a barge and ran accordingly, but hopefully we'll be back in business on Friday.

It's north of the border I go, to Ayr for the opening day of the Scottish Grand National Festival, in search of another winner.

A few of the runners - namely Ten Lengths Tom, Whistle Stop Tour and Mt Fugi Park - in this 0-125 handicap hurdle over an extended three miles are interesting, but none more so than Dan Skelton's CATCH HIM DERRY.

The six-year-old son of Milan has taken a bit of time to come to hand this season. He was dead last in a bumper at Chepstow in November last year prior to heavy defeats in a couple of novice hurdles at Bangor before Christmas.

However, not long into the new year he went to Southwell and broke his duck in a handicap off a mark of 96, pulling over nine lengths clear of the rest of the field alongside a subsequent winner.

He improved again when returning to Bangor in February, despite 'only' finishing second behind stablemate Gwennie May Boy.

Immediately after the race, I'd imagine connections were somewhat disappointed. Catch Him Derry was the choice of stable jockey Harry Skelton and went off 11/8f, so clearly they expected more, but in hindsight it was a fair performance. It's also worth noting that Harry dropped his whip before the last, so he couldn't give maximum effort when it mattered. Mark it up slightly.

Gwennie May Boy is now rated 137, having won two consecutive handicaps - including a Grade 3 at Aintree during last week's Grand National Festival by a widening seven lengths.

There's no doubt he's improved plenty between runs, but it's hard to get away from the idea that a mark of 107 could be extremely lenient for his stablemate, especially as he too could have stacks of improvement to come.

Races don't always play out like you've pictured it in your head, but I can see the selection tracking the front-runners throughout before taking it up two out and making it a case of 'catch me if you can'.