tracked leader, ridden to lead over 2f out, pushed out
led until ridden and headed over 2f out, weakened quickly
soon pushed along and in touch, ridden over 3f out, weakened over 2f out
chased leaders throughout, ridden 2f out, no extra final furlong
always in touch on inside, riden over 1f out, not quicken inside final furlong
keen in rear, stumbled after 1f, never in contention
held up in touch, headway 2f out, went 2nd 1f out, always held
Empire's Ghodha has what it takes to land this prize from Feminist and Forzeen, who look best of the remainder. Brian Meehan's colt has been finding one or two too good so far in four outings, but has never been too far away and is running to a consistent level of form that should be enough to outgun the other seven, who don't exactly look magnificent. Blinkers were tried last time and are on again here and there is no reason to suggest that there is any major temperament problem for the horse, so we will side with him to get off the mark here. Feminist did not appreciate the soft ground first up at Salisbury, but ran with much more promise last time out when third at Kempton and although Mick Channon is still not really firing as he can, we expect more improvement and she could be up to making the frame. Forzeen tries turf for the first time after a pipe opener at Southwell a month ago. That was not a bad effort on ground slower than his breeding suggests would have been ideal, so he can step up on that on this fast ground and go very well for the shrewd Jamie Osborne. He could be the one to give the selection most to do, but we are happy to side with the greater experience of Empire's Ghodha to get it right this time.
