Reynoldstown Novices' Chase Tips: Lowry's Bar Can Reverse Form

The 2025 Reynoldstown looks a tough puzzle to solve, with a host of potentially smart novices clashing at Ascot. Jingko Blue is taking this in on his path to Cheltenham but Billy Grimshaw thinks he could hit a serious bump in the road..

It does not take a genius to work out which piece of form will be the most impactful on the market for this race, with the favourite and second favourite having clashed last time out at Windsor. On that occasion it was Jingko Blue who reigned supreme over LOWRY'S BAR, however for a myriad of reasons I am fairly sweet on the vanquished Hobbs and White horse reversing form here. The first and most obvious reason is the weight swing, with Lowry's Bar running off levels last time out but now receiving five pounds due to the Windsor winner's penalty from Jingko Blue. That would equate roughly to the distance he was beaten at Windsor if the number crunching boffins who calculate how many lengths each pound of weight are worth are to be believed, and watching that Windsor race back it's hard to make the case that Lowry's Bar was not a shade unfortunate.

Throughout the contest he was the standout in the jumping department, often gaining lengths on his rival at his fences and hitting almost every fence on a good stride. Unfortunately for him and his backers that day, his one jumping error was a bad one and came at a very costly time in the race two out when things were starting to heat up. None of these stayers are blessed with a potent turn of foot so with that momentum halting mistake it was always going to be tough for Lowry's Bar to get back on terms with the winner, but he did rally somewhat proving the mistake had not took the stuffing out of him.

Without that blunder I do think the Hobbs White charge would've conquered Jingko Blue and with that his only error, I am willing to forgive him and trust it won't happen again, Hopefully Michael Nolan gives him a good, positive ride here as he did at Windsor and he wins the pace battle with rank outsider Leave Of Absence because if he does and gets into a jumping rhythm, he will be hard to pass barring errors. 

Of course, this is no two horse race and outsider of the aforementioned outsider I am not totally dismissing the chances of anything else in the field. The Changing Man is a horse team Tizzard have never been shy of complimenting and although he is becoming a bit of a nearly horse considering he has looked like winning the last thrice and finished second on all three occasions, he is still classy and not a horse to underestimate. One suspects he'll enjoy the stiff nature of Ascot, but whether he can quite get past our fancy out in front remains up for debate given his questionable finishing efforts of late when looking like looming up to win.

Eyebrows were raised when Peaky Boy left Nicky Henderson for the O'Neill team considering he seemed to be doing just fine at Seven Barrows, and although he has a Cheltenham win under his belt from earlier in the season, focusing on his latest run there when a beaten favourite means he has a lot to find in here. Coupling that with the fact he is on yard debut here and could well be being aimed at handicaps down the line means although I once held the horse in high regard, he was the first off my list of the quartet of runners at single figure prices.