Ribbons

Ribbons put up an encouraging performance to finish second behind Zurigha in a listed fillies' race run over a mile at Kempton on Saturday. Held up second last of the seven runners in the early stages of the race off a really sedate early pace, she was still second last at the top of the home straight. Moved towards the stands side by Hayley Turner passing the two-furlong pole, she had to make her ground into a spring finish, but she did. She finished best of all down the near side to take second place, just a length and a half behind Zurigha.

This race was rendered a lot weaker than it might have been with the withdrawal of Zibelina on the morning of the race, but Zurigha - winner of a listed race at Newmarket last September - still set a good standard. Ribbons herself had won her maiden on her only run as a juvenile, and she had won her first three races last season before disappointing a little in finishing third in a listed race at Yarmouth on her final run as a three-year-old last September. That run was over 10 furlongs, but it wasn't a lack of stamina that beat her.

This was a really promising start to her four-year-old campaign. She is out of a full-sister to Soviet Song, but she is by Manduro, and she shapes as though she will be better over further than this one-mile trip. At the very least, she does appear to need a faster pace than the one she got on Saturday over a mile.

James Fanshawe's fillies usually come on for their seasonal debuts, and Ribbons should be able to step up on this now. She is entered in the Group 2 Middleton Stakes at York's Dante meeting, and she could be an interesting outsider in that, stepping up to 10 furlongs. She will be of interest whevever she goes next.

19th April 2014

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