Nap of the Day: Thosewerethedays – and this might be too!

We failed in our bid to land a four-timer on Friday, but there's plenty of opportunity for us to get right back to winning ways 24 hours later.

Despite the big meeting at Ascot, the Nap of the Day comes from Catterick in the morning (yes, that's the morning on a Saturday in October - bizarre I know...).

Forget Champions Day at Ascot, it's all about Catterick on Saturday. Ish.

The eight-race card in North Yorkshire gets underway at the unusually-early time of 10:30 - and just before midday a horse called THOSEWERETHEDAYS goes for Ralph Beckett and Edward Greatrex in a 0-85 handicap over 1m4f.

I took interest in the three-year-old son of Sea The Stars, a €110k breeze-up buy for the Rooneys last May, on handicap debut at Haydock a few weeks back, but he could only manage to finish fourth, two-and-a-half lengths off the pace.

Plain and simply, I don't think he stayed 1m6f down that punishing straight in WA12. He travelled into contention better than any of his five rivals but had little to offer when push came to shove under jockey-on-the-day Hector Crouch.

The handicapper has, rather generously as far as I'm concerned, offered a pound of relief, and he reverts back to a much more suitable 1m4f.

I say 'reverts back', but it was actually 1m3f when he opened his account at Carlisle in September, beating the 77-rated Sound Janet by a widening four-and-a-quarter lengths, so it's technically a slight step up. I don't expect that to be a problem whatsoever, though, especially round a tight track like Catterick.

I am confident this lightly-raced individual is better than his mark of 81. His aforementioned victory in Cumbria and previous defeats to highly-rated rivals such as Gamrai (90), Boatswain (90), Earl Of Rochester (87) and Chartwell Jock (80) suggest as much.

The Haydock form is hardly bad, too. The runner-up occupied the same position in a good race back over course and distance on Friday off two pounds higher. The selection just didn't stay.

As for his 11 rivals on Saturday, none stand out. I suppose fellow three-year-old Aajej is the most interesting on handicap debut, but there's less substance to his form than the selection's. Four-year-olds Made All and Fouroneohfever look pretty exposed at this point.

I fancy Thosewerethedays quite strongly in this company, to be honest.

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