Eldalil

Eldalil ran a cracker to chase runaway winner Hibaayeb home in the Ribblesdale Stakes at Ascot on Thursday. Rejected by Richard Hills in favour of Fatanah, the Hamdan Al Maktoum filly was squeezed out of it a little at the start, with the result that she had to travel out the back for most of the race. It looked like that would be fine, as they went fairly fast up front through the early stages, but Michael Hills steadied it down from the mile pole on the leader Acquainted until they approached the home straight, and Eldalil had a lot of ground to make up from the two-furlong pole. In fairness to her, she picked up impressively when Tadhg O’Shea went for her and stayed on best of all. She had no chance with the winner, but she ran past every other filly in the race and finished strongly, proving her stamina for a mile and a half, which was significant given that she had never been beyond seven furlongs before in her life. Indeed, this was just the third run of her life. She is certain to improve for it, and she could be a top class middle distance filly.

17th June 2010