Varenar

Varenar deserves another chance after his run in the Group 1, six and a half furlong Prix Maurice De Gheest at Deauville on Sunday. Drawn on the far side in stall 15 of the 15 runners, Gerald Mosse bounced him out and tacked over in front of the field so that he could race on the stands rail, which had obviously been the plan, but he had to do a lot of running to get there, and it is probable that it wasn’t the place to be anyway. The winner and runner-up, Regal Parade and Joanna, were drawn in stalls 14 and 13 respectively, and they both ran straight, essentially staying on the far side. Varenar eventually faded, which was rather unsurprising in the end, given the energy he had used up early on and the fact that most of his best performances came when he had been held up off the pace.

Alain De Royer-Dupre’s colt has been mentioned here a few times, he was unlucky on both his two previous starts, he was hampered and shuffled back early on in the July Cup, while he was short of room and on the wrong side in the Golden Jubilee, just getting done for pace on his first start over six furlongs there before staying on well. He will return to that trip again when he goes back to Longchamp for the Prix de la Foret, a race which he won as a rank-outsider last year, and for which he probably wasn’t afforded due credit. He was a really good winner on the day, and he clocked a fast time, but the general consensus was that Goldikova had under-performed back in third. Given that, Varenar could be underrated going back there bidding to win the race again, and especially off the back of this run. He will surely be held up next time.

8th August 2010