He kicked from the home turn on Molly Olly’s Wishes early on the card, Art, and never saw another horse after that. I suspect he was simply trying to repeat the formula, and if Cyrname had returned near his best, he couldn’t afford to lay too far off him. Besides (personal preference, but) when a horse is travelling as well as Shan Blue was, I always prefer that jockey’s boot them on when stamina is a given, rather than pi*ss-about trying to win cute.
I think his Cheltenham tactics were fine too. His only real chance was to make it a real test in the Marsh, and the bigger error imo, was the trainer running him in the wrong race (presumably running scared of Monkfish).