Rivellino

It is perhaps a little odd to be noting a horse who put up a fairly non-descript performance without any obvious excuses, as Rivellino did in the Hackwood Stakes at Newbury on Saturday, but Karl Burke’s horse may be under-rated now on the back of this run when he returns to Ascot or to an all-weather surface.

As has been well-documented by now, many horses who perform well on Polytrack also seem to do well on Ascot’s straight track. Since the track was re-laid in 2006, the fact that it is sand-based seems to facilitate horses who do well on Polytrack, and there are some horses who simply are not as good on turf away from Ascot as they are at Ascot or on Polytrack. Rivellino appears to be one of those horses.

The Invincible Spirit gelding has won four of his nine races on Polytrack, and he has finished second or third in three of the other five. He has run twice at Ascot. On the first of them, he finished third in a good maiden there on his racecourse debut in 2012. Then, at the Royal meeting last month, he ran a cracker to finish third in the Wokingham, doing best of those who raced centre to far side. His record away from Ascot and Polytrack now reads 740500.

He will be of interest now when he races next at Ascot, and he may be under-rated when he does.

19th July 2014