Awzaan

Awzaan ran better than his finishing position suggests in a good one-mile listed race at Haydock on Saturday. He was desperately weak in the betting. Favourite in some places in the morning, he went off at 7/1, but despite that, he shaped well on his first run since disappointing in the Guineas. He travelled well in mid-division for Richard Hills, and he came there with a dangerous-looking challenge at the two-furlong pole, but lack of a recent run may have begun to tell at that point, and he couldn’t go with Cityscape and Secrecy, who fought out the finish, fading to finish a respectable third in the end.

Awzaan could be a bit under-rated now. After the Guineas, Richard Hills said that the horse just didn’t perform on the day and that he wasn’t certain therefore if the horse stayed a mile or not. On the evidence shown here, it is easy for people to believe that dropping him back down in trip will see him to better effect, but this was his first run in 139 days.  Mark Johnston has obviously been patient with him, so it was understandable that he tired late on. His pedigree suggests that a mile is within his reach – he is by Alhaarth out of a Zafonic mare – and he deserves another chance at least. The two horses who beat him, Cityscape and Secrecy, are more than useful, two really progressive sorts.

Awzaan was highly promising as a two-year-old, when he remained unbeaten and won the Group 2 Mill Reef Stakes and Group 1 Middle Park Stakes. He remains a very exciting prospect and he is worth another chance next time over seven furlongs or a mile.

4th September 2010