Ambiente Amigo

Ambiente Amigo only finished seventh in the 10-and-a-half-furlong fillies’ handicap at York on Friday, but she can be marked up a fair bit on the bare form of the run. Dropped in early on from her high draw, she was still only 13th or 14th of the 15 runners as they straightened up for home. She travelled well into the home straight though, she started to make her ground and she was still travelling easily at the three-furlong marker. Given a squeeze by Rossa Ryan on the run to the two-furlong marker, she made good ground towards the far side just behind the leaders, but she ran into a cul de sac. That was her winning chance gone as the protagonists fought out the finish up front. She stayed on nicely though once in the clear, and her rider wasn’t hard on her once her winning chance had gone.

Allowed go off at a big price for this race, James Owen’s filly may remain under the radar. Highly enough regarded to be given her chance in the Group 1 Fillies’ Mile last year, her last four runs immediately before Friday had all been in listed company, and she had caught the eye on her last run before Friday, in the Listed Chalice Stakes at Newmarket, when she was keener than ideal early on and travelled well into the lead two furlongs out before fading, as her early exertions told. She gets a mile and a half all right when she settles and, to that end, she is at her best when she is held up. She goes well at Newmarket, but she would be of greatest interest at a track at which patient tactics are generally rewarded. Connections may be on the hunt for winning black-type now, but there is a three-year-olds’ heritage handicap over a mile and a half at Ascot on 7th September, and that is a race that could be ideal for her, if it didn’t come up too quickly.

York, 23^rd August 2024