Mijhaar

Mijhaar, the other one to go far side under the trees early on in the King Edward VII at Ascot last Friday, is the other one to take from the race. He finished fourth in the end but for a long while looked likely to fare considerably better than that.

Neil Callan was keen to grab hold of him early, so consented to follow Ryan Moore on Fiorente over to the far side through the first part of the race rather than risk being trapped wide from his outside draw. He was relaxed enough when the pair of them were by themselves but got lit up somewhat as they crossed over to join up with the main group coming out of Swinley Bottom. He made ground up the side of the course, despite having to go quite wide around the field to do so, and travelled best of all around the home turn, but could only get to within three lengths of Nathaniel as that one kicked on entering the straight, and he just got tired on the testing ground. He was passed by the strong finishing Fiorente and Alexander Pope inside the final furlong, but was still comfortably ahead of the remainder at the line.

There was no let-up here though, they went a fine gallop on the soft ground, and Mijhaar's exuberance through the middle part of the race told in the end. The winner and second are both very stoutly bred and are classy colts, so this was a big run from Roger Varian’s horse on just his third ever run. He should progress well from this.

His dam is a half-sister to Iffraaj, and is a winner over a mile herself who has produced two winning milers, the only two horses to previously win from her first four crops, so it was no guarantee that Mijhaar would prove best at the 12 furlongs of this contest, despite the way that he finished off when breaking his maiden over 10 furlongs on his previous run. He is clearly not devoid of pace and, while he probably does stay this far (this race was run in a fast pace on testing ground), he could prove to be even more effective dropped back down to a mile and a quarter, or at least in less testing conditions over this trip. He is well thought of and should be worth following.

17th June 2011

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