Beaten Up

Put up here as a horse to follow after his impressive victory in a classified contest at Doncaster’s St Leger meeting, Beaten Up had undoubted potential, but even so, you couldn't have thought that he was as good as he turned out to be when winning the Group 3 St Simon Stakes at Newbury on Saturday, and the bookmakers took no chances with him. He pulled too hard through the early stages of the race off a slow early pace, he only dropped the bridle after a mile, but he travelled into the race really well and Johnny Murtagh never had to get overly serious with him, the horse showing an impressive turn of foot to come past some very useful and progressive horses in Al Kazeem, Barbican, French Navy and Mohedian Lady, to win going away.

This is his third win in as many starts and there is no telling how good he could be. He was the most keen in the race, and he should have been the least suited to the steady pace, being a half-brother to Harris Tweed, who stays further, and being held up last. Even when he moved up a furlong and a half out still going well, there was a chance his keenness would take its toll, but this really was a high class performance from him, to draw away from this field and clock a good time. The second horse, Al Kazeem, was left four and a half lengths back, and he had only been beaten half a length by Green Destiny here on his previous run, and Green Destiny (a stable companion of Beaten Up) had gone on to run a fine race in the Group 1 Champion Stakes at Ascot, getting to within five lengths of the winner Cirrus Des Aigles, not having had the run of the race.

Beaten Up is a gelding already, but he could well be a Group 1 middle distance gelding next year. His half-brother Harris Tweed ended his three-year-old campaign with a pair of soft ground listed race wins, over a mile and a half and a mile and six furlongs, but has just come up a little short in Group 2 and Group 3 races this season, although he did run really well in both the Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot and the Glorious Stakes at Goodwood. Beaten Up (by Beat Hollow; Harris Tweed is by Hernando) has more pace than his half-brother, but he clearly sees out a mile and a half well. He may even get further in time too, but he is potentially a top class 12-furlong horse next year now. He is a seriously exciting prospect.

22nd October 2011

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