Deauville Crystal

Deauville Crystal put up a nice performance to win the juveniles’ handicap hurdle at Newbury on Saturday.   Settled nicely by Sean Bowen towards the rear of the field through the early stages of the race, she made nice progress early in the home straight. She travelled really well just behind the leaders on the run to the second last flight, moved nicely in behind the leader Don Bersy on the run to the last and picked up well from there when her rider asked her to, going on to win by over two lengths from Timoteo, with Don Bersy a similar margin back in third.

It was a nice performance from Nigel Hawke’s filly. She probably was advantaged by being held up behind a strong pace, but she travelled like a good filly through the race, she picked up nicely and she won well in a good time.

She has enhanced her reputation since by winning a fillies’ handicap hurdle at Warwick on Thursday under a 7lb penalty, but she was entitled to win that race as well as she did. She is versatile in terms of ground conditions, she has won on heavy, but her Newbury win was probably a career-best, and it was achieved on ground that was no worse than good to soft. Her trainer said after her Warwick win that she could run at Sandown on Bet365 Gold Cup day, and she will be of interest there if she does. Winner over a mile on the flat for Andreas Wohler in Germany, she obviously has age on her side as a juvenile hurdler, and she has a really nice progressive profile now.

25^th March 2017