Communicator

With a record of one win from 11 starts, Communicator was in danger of becoming disappointing. However, he got back on track with a really convincing win of a decent race at Chester on Saturday in a good time.

Settled in fifth of the six runners, the race may have fallen into his lap a little, they did go hard up front with Scatter Dice keeping Kiama Bay honest in front, but it was not as if Communicator waited and came through late into a collapsing pace, he made his move into the teeth of the pace three horse-widths wide as they began to turn for home. He very quickly got to the front and just simply drew right away having got there.

The Motivator gelding has always shaped like a talented individual – he was fourth in the King George V Handicap last season for Michael Bell – and he proved just what he could do here. This was his fourth run for Andrew Balding, he has probably improved with each of them, and it may be that his current trainer has simply found the key to him. He has been raised 9lb for this, which will be enough to put plenty of people off next time, but that is by no means excessive, it is probably the least he could have hoped to get away with given the margin of victory, and off a new mark of 93 he is going to be interesting wherever he goes now. He is by Motivator but he handled this fast ground well, in fact he seemed to thrive on it, and his only previous win had come on fast ground as well at York’s Dante meeting in 2011.

18th August 2012

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