White Lake

White Lake deserves another chance after his run to finish sixth in the one-mile handicap at Sandown last Saturday.

Settled in at the back of the field early from his wide draw, 15 of 15, he was stone last of the 15 runners down the back straight and around the home turn. Still last as they straightened up for home, he moved towards the far side two as the field fanned out across the width of the home straight at the two-furlong pole. He had a lot of ground to make up on the leaders from that point as Andrea Atzeni just punched him along, but he made progress from there to the half-furlong marker, when his run just flattened out. It was still an encouraging run from a horse who promises that there is more to come.

This was just Roger Varian’s horse’s seventh run. A promising juvenile, he didn’t win in three runs as a three-year-old last season, including when well-fancied for the Craven Stakes, but he shaped encouragingly on his debut this season in that hot seven-furlong listed race at Leicester in April that Home Of The Brave won, and Saturday’s run – without the hood that he wore for the first time at Leicester – was another step forward from that. He is by Pivotal, and he goes well on easy ground, but he also has form on fast ground. It may be that a mile on soft ground stretches him, so a fast-run seven furlongs or an easy mile could be optimal for him, and he will be of interest if he takes up his entry in the Betfred Mile at Glorious Goodwood.

2^nd July 2016