mid-division and soon pushed along, hard ridden and headway over 1f out, kept on inside final furlong
chased leaders, ridden 3f out, no headway final 2f
always prominent, ridden well over 1f out, led well inside final furlong, ran on well
chased leaders, ridden and edged left well over 1f out, no impression
tracked leader, ridden 2f out, weakened inside final furlong
held up and behind, never near leaders
slowly into stride, outpaced
led, ridden well over 1f out, headed and no extra well inside final furlong
Not a bad maiden for its type and one that can be taken by Soul Dance, with Abelard and Lakeside Guy others who could go close. The selection has had just the one run to date, when runner-up to Pine Bay in this sort of company at Windsor in September. A bit green early on, she got the hang of things well and ran on that day, and although she drops back in trip here there is no reason to suggest that she won't have the speed to cope with this on this slower ground. With improvement to come for that run then she can score. Abelard won't be too far away though. Richard Fahey's yard continues in form and the gelding runs from a 2lb lower mark than when runner up at Newcastle in September. The question that he has to answer, however, is does this surface suit him? One run on it, last time out, suggests not, but the jury is still out and therefore he is probably best watched again this time. Of the others, Lakeside Guy is a consistent gelding, who acted well enough on this surface last time out, and who also handles this trip well. He has gone up 1lb and while that is not a crushing burden to overcome, he does probably need to go down by a few pounds before he picks up that elusive win, and we will stick with Soul Dance to score.
