Prince Siegfried

There was a lot to like about the performance that Prince Siegfried put up to finish fourth in the Group 3 Brigadier Gerard Stakes at Sandown on Thursday evening. Settled in third place, on the rail behind pace-setter Tazeez and his better-fancied stable companion Peligroso, he travelled well into the home straight and looked like he would be involved when they began to go for home three furlongs out. Ted Durcan brought him over to the far rail to go for a half-gap between the leader and the rail, but switched him to challenge outside the leader when it was apparent that there wasn’t enough of a gap. However, at that stage Stotsfold was being delivered on the outside, and the converging of that rival and Tazeez resulted in Prince Siegfried being shut out just as he was beginning his challenge. Durcan had to take a pull and take him back, and he was easy enough on him once his winning chance had gone, but he still ran on all the way to the line to finish fourth, behind three high class rivals in Stotsfold, Tazeez and Glass Harmonium, with the first four clear.

There were a lot of things counting against Prince Siegfried here, the ground was faster than ideal for him, his trainer Saeed Bin Suroor is going through a very quiet spell, and Frankie chose to ride Peligroso in the race instead. Put that together with the poor run through the race that he had to endure, and it was a hugely commendable performance. The son of Royal Applause progressed nicely last season, winning a listed race at Ayr in September doing handsprings on his penultimate run, and then performing a little disappointingly in his final race of the season at Newmarket, when he could only finish second behind Laaheb, but that race was his first in six weeks, he may have had a little setback in the interim, he may have been a little rusty going into the race, it was in late October, late in the season, when horses are going in their coats and when a poor run is more forgiveable than at the height of the season, and it may not have been that bad a run anyway, Laaheb is thought by his trainer Michael Jarvis to be very good, despite the fact that he got beaten by Glass Harmonium on his debut this season. The other consideration is that both of Prince Siegfried wins as a three-year-old were gained from the front. He will be of big interest now when his yard turns the corner and when he encounters slightly easier ground than good to firm, especially he is ridden from the front. He is in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes and the Eclipse – that’s how good connections think he is.

27th May 2010