Devil To Pay

Devil To Pay was under pressure from a long way out in the Imperial Cup at Sandown on Saturday, he was being firmly driven along in no better than 16th or 17th place as they turned out of the back straight, but he stayed on well all the way up the straight to finish seventh, just a neck away from fifth.

Alan King’s horse is a 14-16 furlong performer on the Flat and he has shaped for a while now as though he would appreciate a step up in trip beyond two miles over hurdles. That looked the case when he ran Sire De Grugy to three parts of a length at Taunton on his previous run, and he shaped very much that way again here. He ran on well to win over two miles and three furlongs last April, but he has been kept to two miles in his three runs now this season. He will be interesting now when he is stepped up in trip, which he surely will be now.

He is useful over two miles, it was a really good run against Sire De Grugy at Taunton, Gary Moore’s horse is classy and looked the likely winner of Saturday’s race over the second last before not quite getting home as well as Paintball and Nampour with his big weight, but Devil To Pay could improve quite considerably when he tackles a longer trip again. He is probably still nicely treated on a mark of 128 when he steps up to two and a half miles.

10th March 2012

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