Keith Melrose can see a plan coming together in the Haldon Gold Cup

Not That Fuisse
2.25 Exeter
1pt win
Last season there was clearly a plan where Not That Fuisse was concerned. In the early part of the season he ran in three good-quality, non-Class 1 novice chases, thereby qualifying for top handicaps.

He did not win any of his early starts and so, by dint of the BHA's blunt, unwieldy rule of not raising non-winners of novice chases, he preserved his hurdles mark.

It was an excellent piece of race planning from Dan Skelton and Not That Fuisse went off 7-1 for the Caspian Caviar Gold Cup, but a stiff 2m4½f on soft ground stretched him. On his only subsequent run of the season he bumped into On The Slopes, who is now all but a stone higher, at Kempton.