Fury

Fury has not lived up to very early expectations of him, his run in the Cambridgeshire at Newmarket on Saturday under top weight suggests that there still may be a decent prize in him.

Settled against the rail right towards the rear of the stands side group in the early stages of the race, he made nice ground from there in a race and at a meeting at which it was difficult to come from behind. On top of that he was just checked in his run as Johnny Murtagh first asked him to pick up three furlongs out, and that left him with a lot to do through the final quarter of a mile. Murtagh had to switch on and off the rail for a clear passage, but the horse ran on strongly to finish second of those who raced on the near side.

The William Haggas-trained grey will probably never live up to his reputation as a young horse – his trainer expected a really big run from him in Frankel’s 2000 Guineas – but this was a fine effort off top weight in the Cambridgeshire, 9st 10lb, in a race in which no horse has carried more than 9st 5lb to victory since 1995.

The first-time hood may have helped, he certainly wasn’t as keen early on as he has been on occasions, and in fact he settled really nicely under hold-up tactics, much more patient tactics than usual. He does have a high handicap mark, but he won a good race at York at the start of the season off a mark of 104, and there could yet be a big prize like this in him back on that mark (the handicapper dropped him 2lb after Saturday’s run). He acts well on easy ground – he won the Tattersalls Millions 2yo Trophy on soft ground as a juvenile and he was second to Captain Bertie in the Spring Cup at Newbury this year on soft ground – so that will be an asset of he runs again this season. Longer term, if the hood continues to have a positive effect, then he should be a player in the big handicaps next season.

29th September 2012