Guided Missile

Guided Missile put up a nice performance on her racecourse debut to finish fourth in a six-furlong maiden at Newmarket on Friday. Drawn low, she raced in the centre group, the group that may have been disadvantaged given that they eventually moved over to the far side group at the three-furlong pole. She ran freely throughout the race, and Fortune never got serious with her, she was just given a hands and heels ride, but she still made nice ground up to the leaders and ran on well to finish fourth.

This was a pleasing effort from Andrew Balding’s filly and she has the look of a potentially decent performer. She was well-backed here, even though it was her racecourse debut, and she ran a race full of promise to finish best of the newcomers and behind three useful types who had had an edge on fitness and experience, each of them having had two previous runs coming into this.

She is a full-sister to the useful Dark Missile, who was well able to hold her own in pattern races when also trained by Andrew Balding and she is also a stable companion and a half-sister to the progressive Breakheart, who has done well in some big heritage handicaps this season. Guided Missile herself may be well up to that standard in time, this was a promising debut and she is an interesting prospect for next season.

29th October 2010