Sir Freddie

Sir Freddie showed a lot of guts to get back up to win a two-mile handicap at Kempton on Tuesday, a slowly-run race that shouldn’t have suited him, and he looks like one worth following again. They didn’t go any sort of gallop early on, you rarely get a strong pace in these two-mile races these days, and Seb Sanders restrained Sir Freddie in second behind the favourite Saute. Sir Freddie took a keen hold for most of the first half of the race, a lot of the others did as well, and Sanders eventually just let him take it up and bowl along in front about seven furlongs out. He led until the straight, where he managed to get outpaced by Saute, who came back at him on the inside, and Sir Freddie’s race looked to be run, but he had picked the pace up just about on time to allow his stamina to come into play, and he battled back between two horses – Corr Point had unleashed a run down the outside – to just get back up on the line.

This was a game effort by Sir Freddie to battle back and get back up, but he perhaps would have been even better served if Seb Sanders had allowed him his head, allowed Sir Freddie to go as fast as he had wanted to go in the early part of the race, which would have brought his stamina more into play. It was a similar scenario on his previous run at Newbury, where there was a similarly slow gallop and he got outpaced when they quickened it up before staying on again to take third place behind Yemeni Princess and Strathcal. He had also raced out on his own down the centre of the track in the home straight that day and lost plenty of ground as he moved back over to the main group, so it was a really good run to finish a close up third in the end.

This was just Sir Freddie’s eighth run, only his third over two miles, and you get the impression that there is more to come. He could improve again if he was allowed to bowl along in front next time, and he could be even better on a left-handed track, he seemed to want to go to his left here the whole way. The handicapper has raised him just 3lb to a mark of 72, and that could be really lenient.

24th August 2010