Count D’Orsay

Count D’Orsay is worthy of another chance after he finished only 15th of the 17 runners in the five-furlong handicap at York on Thursday.    He was well away and he travelled well towards the near side in the front rank down to the three-furlong marker. He just didn’t pick up at that point however, and he got squeezed out of it on the run to the two-furlong marker, after which David Allan was not hard on him. He was well beaten in the end, but this was not his running, in a race that came up just a week after he had run really well in a similar contest at Chester.

He did well to finish second in that race at Chester, racing, as he did, from stall six of nine. An inside draw over five furlongs at Chester is obviously a significant advantage, and Jabbarockie bolted out of stall one that day and led all the way. By contrast, Count D’Orsay was dropped in early by David Allan from stall six. Seventh of the nine runners as they wheeled around the bend, he was a little keen as they raced past the three-furlong marker but he threaded his way through among horses and he finished off his race strongly to get up for second place in front of Copper Knight, just over a length behind the winner Jabbarockie.

That Chester race is a race in which, unsurprisingly, low numbers have historically dominated. The previous eight winners of the race emerged, respectively, from stalls two, three, four, four, three, one, one and four. And in this year’s renewal, the other three horses who filled the first four places with Count D’Orsay raced from stalls one, three and four respectively. Tim Easterby’s horse did well to get as close as he did. He got a lot closer to Jabbarockie at Chester than he did at Musselburgh on his seasonal return, when he finished 11th, 15 lengths behind Eric Alston’s horse.   His best runs have been at Haydock and Catterick, over five furlongs and on soft ground, so he will be of particular interest if and when he returns to either those two tracks.
York, 13^th May 2021