Past Winners » Masamah

28th-Jul-2011

It is difficult to get away from Masamah. He is rock solid, he is in the form of his life, and it is difficult to understand why he is not clear favourite.

Maybe it is the track, maybe the general feeling is that he won’t handle Goodwood, and he may not, he has never raced there, and it is easy to point to the fact that he only finished eighth in the Dash at Epsom – a similarly downhill, undulating track – when favourite on Derby day on the only occasion on which he raced there. However, he stumbled early on that day, he had to do all his racing well away from the favoured rail, and he was still only beaten a total of a length and a half.

He is very good at York, but he is very good also at Newbury and Chester and Ascot, he appears versatile, so there shouldn’t really be an issue with the track. He loves good fast ground, which is what he will have today, and he can race prominently, just behind the pace or in behind. His draw in stall eight gives Jamie Spencer all the options, depending on what the pace is. He is rock solid and his chance is a fair bit better than odds of 5/1 suggest.

MASAMAH WON (ADV 5/1, SP 4/1)