Castles In The Air

Despite finishing only 12th in the Buckingham Palace Stakes, the run of Castles In The Air was interesting. Drawn nearest the stands rail in stall one, Richard Fahey’s gelding bounced out to lead his near side group. He travelled well in front, but as they past the two-furlong marker, just when Lee Topliss asked him to pick up, he drifted badly to the right out to the centre of the track, which was the slowest part of the track all week. Despite that, he still ran on well enough to finish about five lengths behind the winner.

Given the way things panned out for Castles In The Air, this wasn’t a bad performance, the time for the race was a second faster than standard and he was up with the pace for most of the way, he kept on well after he drifted into the centre and he would have finished much closer had he been able to chart a straighter path. The leaders finished in a V-shape spread across the track, with the first two at the opposite points on the V, which backs up the going stick readings which suggested the slowest part of the track was the centre, so it was good effort from Richard Fahey’s horse to keep going, given the ground he had lost by drifting across as well.

Castles In The Air was racing off his highest mark here, after he won impressively over six furlongs on his seasonal debut at Pontefract back in April. The stiff six furlongs there seemed to suit him and he really showed a lot of speed here as well, he could be very interesting if connections drop him back to six furlongs on a stiff track. The handicapper has dropped him 2lb to a mark of 100 for this effort, which is fair. The balance of his form suggests he will be better with a bit of cut in the ground as well.

18th June 2010