Fanunalter

Fanunalter is starting to look interesting, and he looks worth following after his run in the Group 3 Sovereign Stakes at Salisbury on Thursday, despite the fact that he finished eighth of the nine runners. Marco Botti’s gelding travelled nicely well off the pace, and he was bang there three furlongs out, but he got stuck behind a wall of horses as everyone got stacked up in a queue behind Sea Lord. He was probably going best of all at that stage, but he never got any run and Darryll Holland could do nothing about it, he just had to sit and suffer. He was only beaten three lengths in total in the end despite his finishing position, and he still looked full of running.

This was a really good race, they went a good gallop from the off, the winner, Sea Lord, has been a most progressive horse this summer, while Poet’s Voice, who finished second, ran back to his true form, and the third horse, Secrecy, won well at Kempton on Monday. Fanunalter would have surely got very close to that pair with a clear run. He does need things to drop right, he will always be a hostage to ill-luck given that he needs to be ridden in behind for a turn of foot, he will always be reliant on the gaps appearing, but he travels like a classy individual, and he is the type to do well in a high class race at a big price soon. He seems to be at his best on fast ground over a fast-run mile, the conditions that he had when he beat Mia’s Boy in a listed race at Doncaster back in April.

12th August 2010