Quest For Peace

The Ballydoyle colt Recital may have disappointed in the Group 3 Ballysax Stakes at Leopardstown last Sunday, but the yard should have taken some solace from the performance that was put up on the day by his stable companion Quest For Peace in the maiden race run immediately afterwards over the same distance. This looked like a good maiden, and the Galileo colt was ridden like a good horse, bounced out prominently by Ryan Moore just behind the leader and kicked on early in the straight, quickening clear impressively to put the race to bed by the furlong marker.

Although the visual impression the Galileo colt made was very deep, the time was not great compared to the Ballysax, over 1.7 seconds slower, but that is far from the full story. The early pace in the maiden was only average, Massabini was unhassled on the front end, while the gallop in the Ballysax was strong with the Ballydoyle horse, Regent Secret, who incidentally did well to stick on for second, setting a strong pace with another Ballydoyle colt, Exodus, coming to press him nearing the end of the back straight.

However the turn of foot Quest For Peace showed when quickening up was impressive. He put up an impressive performance to put a good field of maidens away comfortably, and he can go on from this. He did have the benefit of a run this season already, but so did several of the others including main market rival Claiomh Solais who actually finished in front of the winner in a soft ground mile maiden last time. Quest For Peace clearly learned a lot from that reappearance, when he still looked green on the back of just one run last backend, and stepped up on that performance significantly over this longer trip. There were Derby quotes for him after this, and although there are stamina doubts for the 12 furlongs on the distaff side, he deserves a shot at a trial now.

10th April 2011

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