Es Perfecto

Es Perfecto put up a good performance to finish fourth in the three-mile handicap hurdle at Newbury on Sunday.

He was slightly hampered at the first flight when Dhowin fell in front of him, which left him further back in the field than rider Tom Bellamy probably wanted. That wasn’t necessarily a negative as things turned out, given that they went hard up front, and the hold-up horses came to the fore. Es Perfecto travelled really well through his race, he moved up nicely on the run out of the back straight, and he travelled best of all at the top of the home straight, moving menacingly well through horses to join the front rank after the third last flight. His run flattened out from there, as the three horses on the far side fought out the finish, but he did well to keep on to get the better of Sizable Sam for fourth place on the near side.

It was a fine run by Alan King’s horse, and he should progress for the experience. It was just his fourth run over hurdles, it was his first run in a handicap and it was his first run over three miles under Rules. Winner of a point-to-point and out of a sister to staying chaser He Rock’s, he should get three miles all right in time in time. It was probably a lack of experience more than a lack of stamina that was his undoing in the end here, but it may be that he will be better over two and a half miles for now.

This was just his fourth run over hurdles, and he will be of interest in another handicap hurdle now off this type of mark in the mid-130s.
Newbury, 20^th February 2021