Chain Of Daisies

Chain Of Daisies put up a really gritty performance to land the concluding race at Newmarket on Friday, the 10-furlong fillies’ listed race.

Initial reaction after the race was that she had the run of the race from the front, at a track at which prominent racers are usually favoured. However, that may not have been the case. The other fillies who raced prominently with her through the early stages of the race all faded badly out of it from the two-furlong pole, and it was left to favourite Crystal Zvezda and 50/1 shot Brandybend to come from the rear and chase her home. It looked like the really well back Crystal Zvezda was coming to claim her when she switched to the stand side inside the final furlong, but Chain Of Daisies responded well for Dane O’Neill, and stayed on determinedly to win by a neck. Interestingly, the runner-up wasn’t closing on her through the final 50 yards. The winner won with her ears pricked, and she probably won with more than the bare winning margin of a neck in hand.

Henry Candy’s filly remains seriously progressive. She has now won four of her last five runs, improving from a handicap rating of 68 at the start of the season to the mark of 94 with which she went into this race. That mark left her with 13lb to find on the favourite, and she was receiving 3lb from her, so net 10lb. It was a big performance.

This was just her eighth run ever, she retains scope to progress further. Ten furlongs is her trip, although she could get further on this evidence, and she probably wouldn’t have wanted the ground to have got too soft on Friday. Her trainer said afterwards that she had grown all through the season, which probably explains why she has progressed as well as she has, and which augurs well for the future. She reportedly stays in training, and she could make up into a high-class four-year-old filly.

9^th October 2015