Bridgefield

Bridgefield impressed in winning a conditions race at Newmarket last season as a three-year-old, he ran well on his first start in Dubai this year, and he ran a decent race back in Britain at York last week in the Listed Hambleton Handicap over a mile.

They didn’t go a great gallop in the race, plenty of horses were pulling hard early on, and Bridgefield probably wasn’t advantaged by being held up. Fury and Prince of Johnanne both raced handily, indeed Bridgefield was the only horse to finish in the first five who didn’t race up with the pace, and his effort can be marked up a fair bit on that basis alone. On top of that, he travelled well but wasn’t asked for his effort until late enough in the piece, and he tried to make his ground up the far rail, which was almost certainly the slowest part of the track. He went into third inside the final furlong before Mijhaar just got back up to snatch that position on the line. But he still ran a solid race, and this performance was much better than it looks.

The Speightstown colt won in good style at Newmarket last year, quickening up nicely to beat Casual Glimpse and Cai Shen readily, with a lacklustre Fury further behind, and he was unlucky on his next run in the Tatler Stakes, a seven-furlong three-year-old handicap at Glorious Goodwood, when he could never get a clear run and Dettori was never really able to ask him to pick up. It looks like he has progressed again this year, he has been eased 1lb after this latest run to a mark of 99 and that just may be a mark off which he can win a decent prize.

17th May 2012