Bronze Cannon

The slow middle pace of the Winter Derby at Lingfield last Saturday didn’t suit Bronze Cannon at all. Seventh on the outside down the back straight, he got tapped for toe as the pace increased going down the hill on the far side. He came under pressure well before the home turn, and had to come very wide to deliver his challenge, but he stayed on well to take third place.

It never looked like John Gosden’s colt would get to the duelling leaders, Scintillo and Premio Loco, he just couldn’t match their turn of foot off the home turn off a slow pace, and he was wider and had to come from further back anyway. However, there was a lot to like about that way that he progressed up the home straight, and he did come clear of the fourth horse and close on the leaders all the way to the line.

Winner of two handicaps at Newmarket in the early part of last season, and under consideration for supplementation to the Derby at the time (he beat Doctor Fremantle in the first of those handicaps, and that horse finished fourth in the Derby), it was disappointing that the son of Lemon Drop Kid didn’t win again in three tries thereafter. He was particularly disappointing when well fancied for the King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot, and his season petered out a little then with a poor run over Saturday’s course and distance in November. However, judging by his performance on Saturday, there is no doubt that he still has significant ability. That run in the King Edward VII Stakes was his only run over a mile and a half, but there is every chance that he will get the trip. Certainly, he does seem to need more of a test of stamina than Saturday’s race – a slowly-run race over 10 furlongs on Polytrack – provided. He should come on for that run, and he could be one for the John Porter Stakes over a mile and a half at Newbury next month.

© The Irish Field, 28^th March, 2009