Musical Rain

Musical Rain put in another really good effort when finishing third in a competitive 10-furlong handicap at The Curragh last Friday. Kevin Prendergast’s filly dwelt slightly at the start under young apprentice jockey Sean James and she was held up as a result, but she travelled well though the race and still looked to be going well when they turned in. It was here that the daughter of Val Royal had to be switched around Mianach to get a run down the wide outside, she made good progress from there and looked like she was going to get up but just failed, beaten only two heads in the end by Bob Le Beau and Ghetto Gospel respectively.

This was Musical Rain’s fourth start of the season, and she has yet to finish out of the frame this year. She always seems to come with a late run in her races, but it would not have been easy here, she lost plenty of ground at the start and in the manoeuvre that saw her jockey bring her to the outside, but she still finished really well, and was probably a shade unlucky. The two horses that narrowly beat her are fairly decent performers, Bob Le Beau looks really progressive now, he won his maiden well on his first start of the season and he was only just beaten by the nod of a head in a good handicap at Leopardstown on Thursday evening, and Ghetto Gospel has already won four times this season and ran a solid race in the Ulster Derby on his previous run over what was probably an inadequate distance. Those two also raced on the inside throughout, in contrast to Musical Rain, so she can be marked up a lot for this effort.

It is worth nothing that Kevin Prendergast has used Musical Rain as an opportunity for two of his apprentice riders on each of her four starts so far this year and that may one of the reasons that she continues to be underrated. On her last start at the Curragh she was drawn widest of all and had to come wide on the outside from last place going into the straight, she beat all everyone else except for Barring Decree, who got first run and was given a really clever ride by Kiegan Latham. She should be able to win again, she goes well at The Curragh and she has only been put up 2lb for this.

25th June 2010