Blue De Vega

Blue De Vega put up a fine performance to finish a close-up third in the Gladness Stakes at Naas on Sunday.

Quickly sent into the lead by Pat Smullen, Michael O’Callaghan’s colt led at a nice tempo and looked set for victory when he went clear on the run to the furlong pole. He was just run down late home, however, by Alice Springs and Diamond Fields, who came widest and latest of all.

There may have been an advantage to be gained from racing away from the inside rail in the home straight at Naas on Sunday. The seven winners on the day, on both the straight course and the round course, as well as the majority of the main protagonists, raced away from the far rail. So Blue De Vega may have been disadvantaged by racing flush against the inside rail all the way up the home straight. In the circumstances, he can probably marked up at least a little on the bare form of the race.

This was the Qatar Racing colt’s seasonal debut, his first run since he finished second to recent All-Weather Mile Championships winner Sovereign Debt in the Listed Knockaire Stakes at Leopardstown at the end of last October.

Always highly-regarded, he was an exciting juvenile, he won his last two of three races as a two-year-old, and he started off last year’s campaign really well, by chasing home Awtaad in the Listed Tetrarch Stakes on his debut, and by finishing third behind Kevin Prendergast’s colt in the Irish 2000 Guineas on his second run. He was well beaten behind Hawkbill in the Tercentenary Stakes at Royal Ascot, but that was over 10 furlongs, a distance that probably stretched his stamina beyond its limit. It is interesting that he holds entries in the Amethyst Stakes over a mile and in the Duke of York Stakes over six furlongs. He would be of interest in either, but seven furlongs could be his optimum.

9^th April 2017