Auric

Auric put up a good performance to win the six-furlong novice stakes that opened proceedings at Kempton last Saturday. A little awkwardly away and squeezed out of it a bit in the first 100 yards, he was only seventh of the eight runners as they started to wheel around the home turn. Locked away on the inside early in the home straight, rider Oisin Murphy had to wait for the cutaway just outside the two-furlong marker before he could ask his horse to pick up but, when he did, Auric picked up nicely. He didn’t show push-button acceleration, but he continued to make his ground on the far side towards the leaders, and he just got there, dipping at the right time and getting the best of a three-way go to the winning line, getting home by a head in the end from Harry Did.

It was a game performance by Hugo Palmer’s horse. He was sent off at 40/1 on his racecourse debut over six furlongs at Wolverhampton in early March, but he put up a nice performance there, keeping on well from the rear to finish fourth behind One More Wave. The runner-up from that race, No Half Measures, won her maiden at Lingfield next time, and this was a nice step forward from Auric, making his ground late on in a race that was run at a moderate pace. There is plenty of pace in his pedigree, and there should be more to come from him.

Kempton, 6^th April 2024