3rd-Jul-2010

There wasn’t any appreciable rain at Haydock overnight apparently, and that means that Barshiba is a decent bet here at 4/1. I would have had her in closer to 5/2. I love Les Fazzani, but she really does need to get her toe in to be at her best, good to firm ground just isn’t what she is about. Polly’s Mark also likes easy ground, and Clowance, who would have been the bet on very soft ground, has been taken out. I’m not sure that the market has reacted to the fact that the ground is going to be fast yet.

Barshiba handles good ground, but she is very good on fast ground, and she is the classiest filly left in the race by some way. She is a winner over course and distance, she won this race last year, stepping up on what she had done before, and she retained that level of form through the summer, getting close to Dar Re Mi in the Yorkshire Oaks in August. She proved that she is in good form again now by running a cracker to finish third in the Hardwicke Stakes last time, not too far behind the high class Duncan, and with decent colts like Redwood and Crowded House behind her. She will find this much easier back among her own sex, she is often under-rated and she is the most likely winner of the race by a fair way in my book.

BARSHIBA WON (ADV 4/1, SP 7/2)