Salden Licht

The other horse to take out of the 10-furlong Class 2 handicap run at Newbury on Saturday, as well as Rainbow Peak and Dr Livingstone, was Salden Licht. Luke Morris settled the Fantastic Light gelding at the back of the field in the early stages, which was where you wanted to be with Dr Livingstone going lickity-split up front. He travelled well in amongst and behind horses down to the two-furlong pole, but just when he wanted to make his move, as Namibian Orator made his move on the far side and Rainbow Peak moved up menacingly on the near side, Salden Licht was caught for racing room. Morris had to sit and suffer as the race developed on either side of the group. Eventually he was able to move to his left to deliver his challenge on the far side, but he had given up three lengths to Namibian Orator at that stage. Even so, he picked up well on what was probably the worst of the ground, and stayed on gallantly, switched back to the centre, to snatch third place, closing all the while on the leaders.

Winner of a listed race over nine furlongs at Chantilly as a three-year-old when trained by Andre Fabre, Salden Licht was off the track for a year from September 2008 until last month, when he made his debut for James Eustace at Wolverhampton. He didn’t show up much there (admittedly the race was won by subsequent Grade 1 winner Gitano Hernando), nor did he make any inroads on his next and only subsequent start at Salisbury in mid-October in a hot race won by Prince Of Dance. This was much more promising, and his handicap rating of 94 would be really lenient if he could re-discover his three-year-old form.

24th October 2009