Raise Your Gaze

Raise Your Gaze put up a nice performance to win the finale at Sandown on Coral-Eclipse day, the Class 4 10-furlong handicap, and he could be a lot better than this grade now.

Settled nicely out the back in the early stages of the race by Ryan Tate behind a decent pace, he was niggled along early in the home straight, but he continued to move forward. Taken towards the outside and asked for an effort two and a half furlongs out, he picked up impressively, hit the front at the two-furlong pole and was three lengths in front by the time he reached the furlong pole. Tate didn’t stop riding, however, he kept his horse going until about 100 yards from the winning line, before just riding him out hands and heels through the final 200 yards and easing him down 50 yards from the line.

This was an impressive performance from Clive Cox’s horse. His task may have been made easier by the defection of some of his intended rivals, most notably the progressive John Gosden horse Prince Of Stars, but such was his superiority over his remaining rivals here, it would have taken a fair performance from any of the defectors to beat him. The race was run at a solid pace and the winning time was good for the grade, just about two seconds slower than the Eclipse, run over the same course and distance earlier.

This was Raise Your Gaze’s first win, but he had been progressing towards it. He had progressed with each of his three previous runs this season and, on his last run before Saturday, he was unlucky in-running, he got hampered at a crucial stage in the race before switching outside and finishing well to take third place behind Rydan – who finished a good third in a better race at Sandown last Friday off a 6lb higher mark – and Reesha – who was only just beaten in a fillies’ handicap at Doncaster on her next run off a 3lb higher mark.

The handicapper has raised Raise Your Gaze 10lb to a mark of 87 for Saturday’s win, but that is not surprising. He was value for a fair hike and, a three-year-old with just seven runs under his belt now, he has the potential to progress further. He obviously goes well at Sandown, so he will be of interest returned there, and he races as if he could improve again for a step up to a mile and a half, a notion that is backed up by his breeding.

5th July 2014