Asiaaf

Asiaaf did well to finish second in the 10-furlong fillies’ handicap. Jamaican Jill led, with favourite Tulip Fields sitting in behind her, and Asiaaf behind her, racing a little keenly, and the three of them generating a little bit of a break on the rest of the field as they turned for home. Asiaaf travelled well into the home straight, and she got the better of the leading two quite quickly. Marcus Tregonning’s filly battled well too when she was challenged by Be More, who had been a little more patiently ridden and who travelled well through her race well and, while she ultimately gave best to Andrew Balding’s filly, she kept on all the way to the line to get to within three parts of a length of the winner.

The New Approach filly only made her racecourse debut last month, and this was just her third run. She shaped well on that debut at Kempton, running on nicely to take fourth place in a 10-furlong maiden, and she stepped forward from that next time when she won a novices’ stakes at Goodwood, when she probably had more in hand than the half-length winning margin. This was another step forward, in a decent fillies’ handicap off a mark of 80, and she will be of interest in another handicap now off that mark.

Sandown, 5^th July 2020