Monday’s French banker of the day is a new recruit to the cross-country sphere, with a placing already on his record…

Capodimonte (Lucas Zuliani/Daniella Mele) Compiegne – R1 – Prix Francois de Chevigny

- Reunites with regular rider Lucas Zuliani

- Relatively unexposed over fences comparative to age

- Open to improvement on second start tackling cross-country jumps

The experienced nine-year-old Capodimonte is a new recruit to the cross-country sphere and made a promising start in his new discipline when placing second in a competitive Class 2 event at Le Touquet. With only six runners, the gelding remained towards the rear of the field whilst he familiarised himself with the new obstacles and made late progress to finish only three-parts of a length adrift of the winner.

With four career victories from a relatively light twenty-two race career, Capodimonte is entitled to take a few runs to get used to the unusual fences within cross-country racing – he is relatively lightly exposed to steeplechasing, having only raced five times over the bigger obstacles with a strong strike rate of two wins and a placing.

He remains open to improvement on his third start of the new campaign and another improved effort from Capodimonte would not surprise.