Rainbow Peak

Rainbow Peak’s run in the Group 3 nine-furlong Strensall Stakes provided further proof that he really does need softer ground and at least 10 furlongs to be seen at his best. He travelled well enough before they reached the straight, just tracking the leaders, but it was there that he seemed to get a little outpaced, and Neil Callan had to go for his whip earlier than he may have liked. Rainbow Peak didn’t travel anything like as well as the winner Rio De La Plata did up the straight, it took him a while to get going on the near side, but he did stay on really well, and only just failed to catch him.

The son of Hernando remains a really progressive sort, he was still a well-supported favourite here again, despite the fact that this was his first run in Group company. He has never finished out of the first two in all six of his starts, winning four times and finishing second twice, but his two defeats have been over a mile and here over nine furlongs. He still ran really well in both races, only beaten a head by Fareer at York earlier in the season and by a neck here, but he looked really impressive when accounting for Kings Gambit by two and a half lengths in the Wolferton Handicap at Royal Ascot over 10 furlongs. Interestingly, Kings Gambit got much closer to him here, finishing just three parts of a length behind Rainbow Peak in third place.

The fact that the son of Hernando is better over at least 10 furlongs than he is over shorter is quite irrefutable now, and he could be even better over 12 furlongs in time. For now, he remains an exciting prospect, especially for the autumn part of the season, for which Michael Jarvis may have been keeping him, to get his favoured soft ground. He is in the Champion Stakes and he wouldn’t be a forlorn hope in that if the ground were to come up on the easy side.

20th August 2010