1st-Oct-2010

On the face of it, Alwaary will be difficult to beat here if he is back in the form as he was on King George day last year, when he finished fourth behind Conduit, Tartan Bearer and Ask. However, he disappointed in the Great Voltigeur on his next run, we haven’t seen him since, and that King George was all about the three Michael Stoute horses, it was a weak enough contest in the end outside of the top three. None of the five horses who finished behind Alwaary there – Golden Sword, Look Here, Frozen Fire, Rockhampton and Scintillo – has won since.

Even if he is at his best, which has to be a doubt after 409 days off, Myplacelater still has a chance of beating him, and she comes into the race in peak form. Always highly regarded and conqueror of Bullet Train (who won the Lingfield Derby Trial on his next start) at Newbury in April David Elsworth’s filly put up a career-best in beating Wigmore Hall and Al Zir in a 10-furlong conditions race at Doncaster last time. That was a strange race, she looked booked for third or fourth place at best until deep inside the final furlong, and there may have been a little case of Wigmore Hall and/or Jamie Spencer idling a little, but she still finished really strongly to just get up on the line. She was really weak in the market before that race, she wasn’t fancied at all, so even better can be legitimately expected of her today if she is even reasonably strong in the market.

She raced that day as if the step up to a mile and a half would suit, and the only time she has been tried over the distance, in the Cheshire Oaks, they went no gallop and she was caught flat-footed when the pace increased before staying on well. She is a little inconsistent, but if she runs her race she should go close.

MYPLACELATER WON (ADV 4/1 [R4], SP 3/1)