Wildcat Wizard

With the exception of the winner, Pastoral Player, who has always had a huge amount of ability and won convincingly, Wildcat Wizard is the horse to take out of the Class 2 six-furlong handicap at Newmarket on Sunday. He travelled well towards the rear and made ground soon after half way to be just in behind the front rank, but he was unable to engineer a space to pass front-runner Silaah, having to be switched repeatedly to try to get past his stable companion. He did eventually pick up well once he could angle out to finish fifth, running on strongly past the line, narrowly failing to get into the places.

This was just his fourth run for Dandy Nicholls and it was his best yet. While he hasn’t got his head in front since his two-year-old days, he has plenty of placed form in good handicaps, including when third in the Stewards’ Sprint at Goodwood last season. That was off a mark of 93 and he was down to a mark of 90 here, having been rated as high as 101 as a juvenile. Although stable jockey Adrian Nicholls preferred Silaah instead, Wildcat Wizard now seems to be returning to his form of last season and will be interesting in the near future now as sprinters can run up a sequence of good performances when they are in form. He has plenty of options off this handicap mark, and he is one to watch wherever he shows up next.

1st May 2011

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