Timeform Notebook: Bolt a speedster to keep onside

There was a tight finish in the Lincoln

Timeform highlight a horse that made a good impression at Doncaster on Saturday, becoming the first Notebook entrant of the 2013 British Flat turf season...

It may have been delayed by a week, but the Lincoln provided a thrilling start to the 2013 Flat season, the first three home separated by less than a neck. On a card which had a formidable look for punters, the Lincoln was by no means the only cavalry charge down the Doncaster straight, and it was the opening six-furlong handicap, won by Thunderball, which provides us with our first notebook horse of the 2013 Flat season.

Jamaican Bolt may have finished only fifth, beaten a shade over two lengths in total, but he shaped extremely well, suggesting that he is certainly capable of landing a similar event, particularly if dropping back in trip to five furlongs. Perhaps it was simply a case of lack of race fitness catching him out on his seasonal reappearance, but Jamaican Bolt travelled exceptionally well through much of the contest- arguably best of all, in fact- before faltering slightly inside the final furlong, shaping as if he will be seen to better effect back over five.

Lightly raced for a five-year-old, Jamaican Bolt was largely progressive last year, signing off for the season with a second-placed effort at Doncaster, a performance which was arguably a career best, and he remains with potential. His strong-travelling style will make him a potent force in plenty of large-field, strongly-run handicaps and he is possibly still a few steps ahead of the assessor. He evidently handles testing conditions extremely well, his best efforts coming on surfaces softer than good, and, while it would be wrong to pigeonhole him as an out-and-out mudlark, he would make particular appeal under such conditions.

2013 Flat Notebook:

Jamaican Bolt- Of interest in five-furlong handicaps with cut in the ground.

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