Racy

It hasn't taken Brian Ellison long at all to get Racy right back to, and even beyond, his best of two seasons ago after picking him up from a Brighton claimer at the end of May. After excellent runs when narrowly touched off in both the Scottish Sprint Cup at Musselburgh and a good handicap at Ascot won by Masamah, he ran another cracker in the Stewards’ Cup at Goodwood on Saturday.

He had been held up on his first three runs for his new stable, and he seemed to really thrive for the switch of tactics (he was formerly a front-runner), but he was ridden more forward on Saturday, tracking the pace down the centre of the track without any cover, and that was probably more prominent than ideal. More importantly, however, he raced right towards the far side of the runners, which was probably a disadvantage in the race and, indeed, on the day. The first three home in the race came from the near side, stalls 26, 25 and 28 respectively, with the third horse staying right under the stands rail the whole way. Indeed, only Racy and the ultra-progressive Tropics out of the first seven home came from a stall lower than 17.

Racy travelled strongly to just outside the two-furlong pole, he quickened up to lead a furlong and a half out and was still in a share of the lead a furlong out, until he gave best to those who had raced on the near side. He didn’t give up though, despite having done most of his racing over five furlongs over the past couple of seasons, and he fought back past Tropics 100 yards from home to finish fourth.

The son of Medicean had been raised 5lb for his previous run at Ascot but he could race off his old mark of 95 here. The handicapper has now re-assessed him on a mark of 99, 4lb higher than Saturday's mark but 1lb lower than after Ascot, but he should still be competitive off that mark. He looks like an improved horse again now for Brian Ellison, he did much better than the bare form of the race suggests, given his poor draw and the fact that he did not have the race run to suit. There could be a big handicap like this in him, he has shaped as such for a long time now, maybe even over a stiff five furlongs. Perhaps the Portland at Doncaster over five and a half furlongs could be his race.

3rd August 2013

Back