Racy

Put up here a couple of times earlier in the season, when unlucky in-running behind Ancient Cross at York back in May and when anticipating the start at the same track behind Hoof It in the Dash in July, Racy is worth one more mention now after he was luckless once more behind Marine Commando at Haydock on Saturday.

Kevin Ryan’s horse was quite smartly away but couldn’t get to the lead as Master Rooney was away slightly faster from a nearby stall and got across to the stands rail in company with Judge’N Jury, leaving Racy to take the trail just in behind. He travelled strongly under Phillip Makin, but had nowhere to go when Makin started looking for room approaching the quarter-mile point. He was trapped on the rail with the leaders going nowhere right in front of him, and Addicitve Dream next to him, keeping him locked up against the rail. Makin looked for room either side of Master Rooney but there was simply none, and it wasn’t until deep inside the final furlong, when Master Rooney just edged off the rail enough to allow Racy to squeeze through, that he got any sort of run. From there he picked up really strongly, finishing best of all to force a photo for second place with Confessional, the pair of them a neck behind the winner Marine Commando. Both the front two had largely trouble-free runs towards the outside.

Racy was probably the best horse in this race, he was sitting on the rail behind Master Rooney for a full furlong and a half with nowhere to go, and he picked up impressively as soon as the gap materialised. This might be the way to ride him from now on, just settled behind the pace rather than jumping and running, as he had been doing or trying to do all season before this, even though it happened by accident this time as he couldn’t get to the front. He handles this easy ground well, he obviously remains on really good terms with himself, despite having had a fairly long season so far, and he will be of big interest next time. He has yet to win this season, in fact his only win came in a two-year-old maiden two years ago, and he was off a career-high mark of 93 here, but he proved that he is certainly capable of winning off this sort of mark. A 2lb hike to a mark of 95 should still be more than manageable on this evidence. He has been an unlucky horse on more than one occasion this season, and in fact this was probably a career-best performance from him to get so close given the way the race was run. It would be no surprise were he to finally get his head in front before the season is out.

24th September 2011

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