Unlucky Zumurud to Finally Be Rewarded at Nottingham

Zumurud has come close to winning on a couple of occasions this season, but ultimately he has been left without a success to his name. However, when he heads to Nottingham on Thursday afternoon, he looks to have a great chance of winning and he may finally get the reward that he deserves for his runs so far this season.

His last two runs have been particularly good, and shown that he is ready to strike. He won at Pontefract at the beginning of July last season off a mark of 77, and comes into this race today off exactly the same mark which is a big positive. He’s ran off 77 on his last two runs, and both have shown that he can once again win off that mark.

Starting with his most recent run, which came at York a couple of weeks ago. This was a very solid run, in a race that was better than the one he goes in today and had a huge field of 22 runners. He came 5th, finishing three lengths behind the winner. On that run, dropping down in class to a lower race here, he has the ability to go close however he didn’t get a clear passage in that one, and would have finished a lot closer had he done so. He may still not have won, but this race is not as competitive as that and a repeat of that run would easily be enough to win this race.

Before that, he ran a great race to finish second at Hamilton. The winner that day was Air Raid, a horse who looked well handicapped on old form if he could bounce back and that is exactly what he did there. Since then, we have seen Air Raid go on again to win under a penalty, and now he is rated much higher. Zumurud ran well and bumped into one that day, and again this was another run that shows he can win off this kind of mark. Take the well handicapped Air Raid out of the race, and Zumurud wins by over a length.

Everything is pointing to Zumurud having a good chance here based on what he has done in his last two runs. If he can reproduce those runs then he surely goes close, and could well get the success he deserves after being consistent so far this season.