Pauling said his prep had gone more-or-less perfectly, littlelad, though I recall he was very mildly-peeved about not getting a run into him beforehand (had an entry at Open meeting, but wasn't declared). I would have dug out the original quote for you, but it seems the RP - in their infinite wisdom - have deleted it.....the twats.
Anyways, I was happy enough with the bulletin at the time, and my main concern was about him getting into the race, as he was #60 when I backed him. No such concerns now.