Mabait

Mabait ran out a really impressive winner of a good little Class 2 one-mile handicap on Bet365 Gold Cup day at Sandown on Saturday. Held up out the back in the early stages, Kieren Fallon exuded confidence throughout, Mabait picked up impressively when Fallon eased him out at the two-furlong pole, and he quickened away from useful performers Dunn’o and Tartan Gigha inside the final furlong.

This was Mabait’s seasonal debut. He was hugely progressive at the end of last season, winning his last three races, two over seven furlongs at Wolverhampton and the last over a mile on fast ground at Leicester, rising from a mark of 80 to the 94 off which he raced here. Interestingly, his improvement in form coincided with his partnership with Kieren Fallon, who has ridden him to all of his last four wins now. The handicapper has raised him another 10lb to a mark of 104, but that may not still be enough to halt his progress, he won here with much more in hand than the winning margin, and the runner-up, Tartan Gigha, came out and won a hot nine-furlong handicap at Newmarket on 2000 Guineas day.

Mabait could be a contender for one of the big one-mile or seven-furlong handicaps, or, more likely, he is better than a handicapper now and deserves his place in Pattern company. Wherever he goes next, he will be of interest.

24th April 2010