Midnight Flower

Midnight Flower had caused a bit of a shock when she won on her handicap debut at Newmarket in early June, her first win on turf, but she proved that that wasn’t a fluke when she followed up really impressively in a decent fillies’ handicap off a 7lb higher mark back at Newmarket on Saturday.

Strong at the top of the market, David Simcock’s filly travelled really strongly towards the stands side, she was the only horse still on the bridle at the two-furlong pole. She eased to the front on the stands rail a furlong and a half out, and she quickened up impressively passing the furlong pole, finding plenty when Darren Egan asked her to lengthen. She came clear up the stands rail through the final furlong to win by three and a half lengths from an in-form Links Drive Lady, with the first three pulling a long way clear of the rest. She was looking around her a little inside the final furlong too, she was probably idling, and so she probably had plenty more left to give.

The Haafhd filly clocked the fastest comparative time of the day, fractionally quicker than the Class 3 0-95 five-furlong handicap, in which the progressive Cincinatti Kit was pressed all the way to the line by the in-form veteran Tax Free, and she could probably have gone even faster had she been hard pressed late on. She is really progressive now, she has gone up 10lb for this but she is still unexposed on turf, and she could still be significantly better than her new mark of 92.

She should stay seven furlongs, but she has so much pace that there is no real need to step her up at present, and she should be even better in a more strongly-run race at this trip. She should continue to thrive while the ground is fast.

She is entered in a three-year-old handicap at Newmarket on Saturday, and she will be of interest if she takes her chance in that against some of the top three-year-old sprint handicappers around. She could well be a listed-class filly on this evidence at least.

20th July 2013