Al Kazeem

Al Kazeem made an impressive step up from his debut when taking a one-mile two-year-old maiden at Newbury on Saturday in good fashion. Racing from the widest draw, the Dubawi colt had a lot of open space around him for much of the race, but had clearly learned a good deal from his first run in a big Newmarket maiden as that didn’t seem to faze him at all. He and the second, the well-bred and well-regarded Thimaar, travelled powerfully through this race inside the final quarter-mile and the pair of them pulled nine lengths clear of their field, which included some promising sorts. The two of them are clearly decent animals and while Al Kazeem’s experience clearly benefited him, he forged about two lengths clear inside the final hundred yards before Thimaar clawed some ground back late on once Al Khazeem had put the race to bed, suggesting he is also useful.

Al Kazeem ran straight as an arrow once he hit the front, needing only three light flicks of the whip to go about his business. Both the relaxed way in which he travelled through this race and his pedigree (he is out of a Darshaan mare) suggest that Roger Charlton’s colt should stay at least 10 furlongs next year. Although he is quite a big colt, his action would not necessarily suggest a liking for softish ground, making this effort even more creditable. It is unclear how high he can go, but you would have to hope he will ultimately be a Pattern class performer next summer.

23rd October 2010