Sent From Heaven

Sent From Heaven only just scraped home in the Group 3 Prestige Stakes at Goodwood on Saturday, but she deserved to be marked up a fair bit on this bare performance. When a horse leads all the way, the natural inclination is to say that he did it the hard way. Often that isn't the case, if a horse gets an easy lead, it is actually the easy way. However, in leading all the way here, Sent From Heaven did do it the hard way. Michael Hills felt that he didn't make enough use of his father's filly in the Sweet Solera Stakes on her previous run, so that plan here was for Robert Winston to make it, which he duly did. The Footstepsinthesand filly had been slowly away on both of her previous starts, but she was away with them here, and Winston had quickly kicked her into the lead and moved her over to bag the inside rail. That move set her alight a little, and Winston was forced into setting a strong pace by Dettori on his outside on Siyaadah, with the result that the eight runners were well stretched out by the time they had gone three furlongs. In truth, Sent From Heaven never really got a chance to take a breather in front. Winston was nudging her and slapping her down the shoulder until they got to the two-furlong pole, when he asked her to kick again, which she duly did, and went almost three lengths clear. From there, she was scrambling home, as Mudaarah (put up here before as one to follow, and still worth following) and Snow Fairy bore down on her, but she just managed to hold on. It is possible that Winston made it more difficult than it should have been. These things are easy in hindsight, but he didn't really need to go for the filly two furlongs out off such a fast pace. He had burned Siyaadah off at that stage, and he could have sat for at least another half a furlong. If he had, it is probable that her move then would have taken her all the way to the line, and that she would have won by a wider margin. The first four finished with a neck of each other, but it is still probable that this was a good race and a really good performance by the winner and by the second, who could be suited now by a step up to a mile. Sent From Heaven is a leggy filly who will progress further as she develops, and she should be worth following wherever she goes next. The Fillies' Mile is an obvious next target.

29th August 2009

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