Deauville Flyer

Deauville Flyer was a really impressive winner of a class three, two-mile-handicap at York last Friday. Tim Easterby’s gelding travelled well throughout held up off a fast pace. He only had three horses behind him as they turned for home, but Robert Winston looked confident and he looked the most likely winner as they turned in. He was switched to the outside, made smooth headway from here, took it up still on the bit two furlongs out and then picked up impressively when Winston asked him, to win going away. This was a really good performance.

Deauville Flyer improved a huge amount for the step up in trip to two miles here, putting in a career-best performance. The son of Dubai Destination was always travelling well, and he ran on all the way to the line. The handicapper has raised him 11lb for this, which is fairly stiff, but he still looks to be improving. His trainer Tim Easterby said after the race that giving him time has been the making of him and he looks like he has really come back stronger this year and improved after his first season. He put up a good performance to get up and beat The Fonz on his previous run after he had run respectably on his seasonal debut.

He could be a horse for the Northumberland Plate. He would get into that race with a 5lb penalty instead of his 11lb hike, so he would effectively be 6lb well-in. However, his lenient mark may mean that he won’t get into the race on a net mark of 89. Alternatively, he could be an Ebor horse, he obviously likes York, having won twice and finished second once and fourth once in four runs there now.

10th June 2010