March On Beetroot

March On Beetroot is the horse to take from the Listed six-furlong Sandy Lane Stakes at Haydock last Saturday. He wasn’t fast away and Jim Crowley just over-did the waiting tactics on him afterwards. Last passing the two-furlong pole, it looked like a lost cause from there, but he picked up really well on the near side, despite trying to hang in behind the winner Show Rainbow, and would have got up in another stride or two.

He is a lovely big scopey horse, and his trainer obviously thought enough of him to run him in two Listed races now this season and blow his handicap mark. He had been rated 75 after winning his second and final start at two and ran a highly respectable six and a half length sixth of six to Codemaster in the King Charles II at Newmarket (the winner broke the track record) on his return where he raced down the stands side with just one other rival. Raised 10lb for that promising effort, his mark has been blown now after this fine effort, but there still may be some mileage in his new mark of 101. This was just his fourth ever race, the pace was not frenetic which makes his performance to get so close from the back even more meritorious, and the form looks solid with the right horses finishing around him. The winner, Show Rainbow, the third, Sweet Cecily and the fourth, Ladies Are Forever, had finished fourth, sixth and fifth respectively in the Group 3 Nell Gwyn on their comebacks, Ladies Are Forever having won the Redcar Two-Year-Old Trophy last year, and Sweet Cecily also a Listed winner at two.

He is with an small trainer in Robert Cowell, albeit one who does well with his sprinters, as evidenced by his fine handling of Prohibit, and he may continue to be under-rated.

28th May 2011

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