Fareej

Fareej put in a nice performance to win what is traditionally a good one-mile maiden, the curtain raiser to the Cambridgeshire meeting, at Newmarket on Thursday. Frankie Dettori was niggling away on the son of Kingmambo from fully three furlongs out, and those who had backed him in to 6/5 favourite had to have been wondering about the astuteness of their judgement for a little while, but the colt picked up well once he met the rising ground to win going away.

It is impossible to gauge the merit of the form of the race at this stage, given that only one of the 10 runners had run before, but this race has been won in the last 10 years by Twice Over, Pevensey, Lateen Sails and Tamburlaine, so it is a good pointer to the future, and Fareej is obviously held in high regard at home, given how strong he was in the market. He is out of a half-sister to top stallion Danehill Dancer, who won over 10 furlongs, and he should progress markedly for this, his racecourse debut. He has a Derby entry, and his trainer Saeed Bin Suroor said afterwards that he will try to find another race for him before the end of the season. Wherever and whenever that is, as long as the ground hasn't gone for him - it was fast enough at Newmarket on Thursday - he will be of big interest.

1st October 2009

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