Snoqualmie Girl

Snoqualmie Girl put in a performance that was probably a career-best to get the better of Traffic Guard in a listed race over a mile and a half at Chester on Saturday. She did adopt a good position early on, just behind the pace on the rail, where you save plenty of ground at Chester, but she looked in trouble when she came off the bridle three furlongs out, and still had three lengths to find on Traffic Guard and Indian Days, who were duelling up front. She responded well to pressure around the home turn, however, to get up on the inside of Indian Days. Switched to the outside by Silvestre De Souza, she came wider than ideal, but found plenty and battled on really well to get up and do Traffic Guard by a head.

This was just Snoqualmie Girl's second run over a mile and a half. A winner last year as a juvenile over seven furlongs and a mile, although she is by Montjeu her entire pedigree screams 10 furlongs, so it was understandable that she was ridden with a fair degree of restraint on her penultimate run, in the Galtres Stakes at York, on her first attempt at 12 furlongs. Held up well off the pace that day, she stayed on well to take fourth place behind Tanoura, belying her odds of 40/1 and giving the impression that she could have been even better over the trip if ridden with more confidence. Also, it was her first run in two months, so it was reasonable to expect that she would come on for it, which she duly did with Saturday's performance. There is no question now that she gets a mile and a half, it is probably her optimum distance now. The handicapper deemed her performance on Saturday good enough to raise her 7lb, and it is difficult to disagree. It is largely irrelevant as her future is in pattern company, but her new rating of 105 does mean that she is borderline group class now. She is in another 12-furlong listed race for fillies at Ascot on Friday, and she will be of big interest in it if she takes her chance.

13th September 2009

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