Cill Rialaig

Cill Rialaig put in a fine performance to finish sixth in the John Smith’s Stakes at Newbury on Saturday. Settled in mid-division in the early stages from a good draw, she was taken wide on the run around the home turn presumably in order to guarantee herself a run up the home straight. She actually tracked eventual winner Almiqdaad down to the four-furlong pole, but that rival managed to engineer his way in towards the far rail in among runners, with the result that Cill Rialaig was left out widest of all on her own with nothing to race with. Even so, she made nice ground down to the two-furlong pole to join the front rank, and looked likely to have a say in the finish before her run petered out a little and she just kept on steadily all the way to the line.

This was just Hughie Morrison’s filly’s seventh run on the flat after she won both of the bumpers that she contested, including the 12-furlong bumper at Cheltenham on New Year’s Day this year, and she is most progressive now. She can do even better if she can race among horses for longer, and the nine-furlong distance of the Cambridgeshire would probably be ideal for her, and she is entered in the race, but it is unlikely that she will get into it now off her mark of 86. Even so, she should be worth following wherever she goes next.

19th September 2009