Farhh

With most of the focus on the winner So You Think after the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot last Wednesday, there is a chance that the performance of Farhh in finishing third, while not going under the radar, has not been fully appreciated.

He was rearing a little just as the stalls opened, he was the slowest away, and Frankie Dettori had no choice but to drop in on the inside. He was even a couple of lengths detached after a furlong or so and, with very little change in the order of the runners until the home straight, he was much further back than ideal rounding the home turn. He shared last place with Reliable Man as they straightened for home, but whereas Gerald Mosse was able to come widest of all with his challenge, Frankie stayed down the inside and ran into trouble. Planteur was just in front of Farhh at the top of the home straight and he wasn’t picking up as well as the Godolphin horse, Dettori had to sit for a few strides just when he was needing to start making ground.

Farhh did get some room right on the rail two furlongs out, but soon had to avoid the rapidly-weakening Robin Hood and he was continually hampered by Planteur again all the way to well inside the final furlong. He finally snuck through on the rail 150 yards out, by which time he was four or five lengths behind Carlton House, but he finished really well under just a hands and heels ride to get to within a fast-diminishing half a length of the Queen’s horse at the line, snatching third place from Reliable Man, who had had a clear run down the outside.

Saeed Bin Suroor’s horse would have been second in another few strides, and he might even have troubled So You Think with a clear run even just up the home straight, even from his position in rear. This was just Farhh's fourth ever run, he has obviously had his problems, but he is hugely exciting, and talk of going for the Eclipse is not too far-fetched although, as a son of Pivotal with plenty of knee action, he probably will need an ease in the ground to be seen at his best.

20th June 2012

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