Nideeb

Nideeb put up by far his best performance of the season in finishing a staying-on third in the Listed James Seymour Stakes over 10 furlongs at Newmarket on Saturday. The trip before the race seemed to be against him as he had faded on his only two previous runs over a mile and a quarter. It may just be though that he has been out of form or had a physical problem this year as he didn’t return to the track as a three-year-old this year until midway through August and he had run three pretty lifeless races before Saturday’s effort.

As it turned out, the slow early pace over the 10 furlongs here actually didn’t help him, so well was he staying on at the end. He very nearly got past Prince Siegfried for second place late on behind the errant but comfortable winner Timepiece, who, in all likelihood is a fair bit better than a Listed-class filly.

This was a much better effort from Nideeb than he managed on his previous tries this season. He had been a pretty decent juvenile last summer, winning his maiden on soft ground at Yarmouth by five lengths before just getting up to take a Listed contest at Ascot. He returned six weeks later to run two further highly credible races in another Listed contest and a Group 3 race respectively. His encouraging first season and high class middle-distance pedigree would have left many expecting some good things from Nideeb at three. While that has not been the case, there was enough encouragement from this run to suggest that if he is kept in training at four, he could prove to go some way to fulfilling the potential his pedigree commands. Hailing from the Clive Brittain stable there is a good chance that he will find further improvement at four, and possibly beyond.

30th October 2010