Horses To Follow » Horseradish

Horseradish

Horseradish was an impressive winner of a hotly contested 6 furlong handicap at Chester last Thursday. The son of Kyllachy broke well and had the pace to establish a good position just tracking the leaders. He travelled beautifully for Hayley Turner, moved up alongside old rival Rule By Nature two furlongs out and moved on nicely to win well by over two lengths.

This was an impressive performance by Michael Bell’s three-year-old, turned out quickly after a good third at Newmarket last weekend. He was due to go up 3lbs for that effort so he was well-in here, but it didn’t matter as he appeared to win with a fair bit more than 3lb in hand. He travelled really well throughout, came there full of running and won nicely. His old rival, Rule By Nature was well backed to reverse their Yarmouth running, when they were both competing for the first time this season, but she had no answer when Horseradish headed her in the straight. Incidentally the form of that race looks solid, the third, Subtefuge, who was well beaten on the day, came out and won impressively at Warwick on Tuesday on his subsequent run.

Horseradish was gelded over the winter and clearly looks to be going the right way. This was only his sixth start, he has never been out of the top three, so he still remains largely progressive and there will bigger prizes to be won with him this year. He may need a bit of cut in the ground to be seen at his very best, and it still may be that he is best over seven furlongs. With more improvement to come, he could be competing at Pattern race level fairly soon.

6th May 2010