Bernardo O’Reilly

Bernardo O’Reilly did well to get as close as he did in the Ayr Silver Cup from his high draw. Held up early on by Paul Mulrennan, he came under pressure a little on the run to the three-furlong marker. Switched towards the near side in order to get racing room, he picked up well on the run to the furlong pole, and he finished off his race strongly down the near side to get up for sixth place, doing best of those horses who raced towards the stands side. The first five home raced, respectively, from stalls four, five, seven, 11 and one.

That was Bernardo O’Reilly’s 22nd race, he is not especially unexposed, but he appears to be in the form of his life these days. Rated 94 at the start of the season, he kept on strongly to win a six-furlong handicap at Doncaster’s St Leger meeting the previous weekend off a mark of 87 and, racing under a 5lb penalty for that on Saturday, despite the fact that he was only raised by 4lb by the handicapper, this was probably a step forward from that. The handicapper left him on this mark of 91 after the Silver Cup, and he was beaten off that mark of Nottingham on Sunday, but there were excuses there. He missed the break, he was squeezed out of it at the start, and he was a bit isolated through the race on the near side, as the race developed on the far side. He is worth another chance. There could still be a good handicap in him off a mark in the low 90s. He does go well at Doncaster, so he will be interesting when he goes back to Town Moor.

Ayr, 19^th September 2020