Forgotten Voice

Forgotten Voice did well to win a mile handicap at Kempton on Saturday on just his second ever time on a racecourse. Well fancied and well backed – trainer Jeremy Noseda said afterwards that he expected him to win very very easily – he refused to settle through the opening stages of the race in his cross-noseband. By the time Shane Kelly eventually got him anchored, they were turning for home and he was six lengths off the pace in ninth place. Still on the bridle a furlong and a half out with nowhere to go, Kelly eventually switched him to the far side, which is not really where you want to be up Kempton’s home straight, and he picked up. He didn’t show a blinding turn of foot, however. It was more a grinding relentless gallop, and it didn’t look like he was going to get there on time. He traded at 6/1 in-running when Kelly switched him outside again with 100 yards to run, but he picked up nicely under just a hands and heels ride to just get up to nut Prince Of Thebes and Tourist inside the dying strides.

Forgotten Voice is just green. He was fractious in the preliminaries and he was keen through the race, but he should have learned a lot from this experience, making his run between horses and getting up to win. A 230,000gns yearling, he won on his only previous racecourse start, at Lingfield in October 2007, and looked a decent prospect at the time, but injury has kept him off the racetrack between then and now. He should progress significantly from this, and the handicapper can’t go overboard with a short-head win. He should be able to win another handicap and, in time, he may prove to be even better than a handicapper.

11th April 2009