12th-Sept-2014

Stomachion has been twice a beaten favourite and once a beaten second favourite in his last three runs, he may be becoming a bit of a nearly horse in some people’s eyes, but he has had excuses for those runs. He didn’t appear to be happy on Goodwood’s undulations on his penultimate run, nor on Epsom’s cambers on his run before that, even though he finished second, and on his most recent run he shaped a good deal better than the bare result.

He was one of just two horses who did not race prominently who were able to get close to the leaders off the sedate early pace in the good one-and-a-half-mile handicap at York’s Ebor meeting won by Glenard. The race heavily favoured the prominent racers as the pace didn’t pick up much at all until the eighth of the 12 furlongs.

The first three home were the first three (in that order) virtually throughout, with the fourth horse right behind them disputing that position the whole way. Stomachion wasn’t held up right out the back, he was in the middle of the pack, but even that was a disadvantageous place to be, and he didn’t have the clearest of runs when he tried to make his ground into the hottest part of the race.

He was a bit caught out when the leaders pressed on early in the home straight, but he was keeping on when he was carried a little left inside the last quarter-mile, and he was trying to make progress again after that when he was squeezed out of it a little between horses just inside the final furlong. He kept on again after that under largely just a hands and heels ride to finish fifth, still going on at the line and doing best of those who did not race handily.

Sir Michael Stoute’s horse runs off the same mark today, which is one off which he can be really competitive, he shapes like he will improve for the step up in trip, and the big galloping track should suit him. He is still quite lightly-raced for a four-year-old, he has only run 10 times and he still has scope for progression when things go right for him.

STOMACHION WON (SP 15/2)