Friday 3 April – Musselburgh
The Scottish equivalent of the Brocklesby Stakes saw TRIBESMAN produce an impressive turn of foot in making a winning debut, meaning FIRST BOMBARDMENT finished as runner up in both the English and Scottish versions of the Brocklesby. After the race, David Brown said on the Sky Sports website “Ultimately he could end up being a Coventry Stakes horse. He’s the first of my 32 two-year-olds to run and I felt sure he’d win. He’s got some class and he’ll have another run before Ascot in something like the National Stakes at Sandown.” Two previous siblings had not been placed, although one had gone through the sales ring for 220000 guineas as a yearling. However, the market suggested that he could make a good showing as he was supported from 14/1 in the morning to 13/2 at the off.
I expect that FIRST BOMBARDMENT ran to a similar mark as his debut, certainly there seemed to be no excuses. However as I suggested in my preview of the race, he traded as low as 1.21 in defeat (TRIBESMAN hit a high of 700 in running). The preview also highlighted David Brown’s LSP of over 28 points in previous Aprils. In this instance, I suspect FIRST BOMBARDMENT just ran into too good an opponent and that he will be winning in the future.
Of the others, SIXTH SENSE was slow into stride, and MR MORSE, despite being on my original shortlist, was sent off at 28/1 and ran accordingly.
The other two runners may be of interest in the future. ZEPHYR BREEZE kept on towards the finish, without being asked too many questions. With the benefit of experience, I expect he could be winning his maiden in the future. Likewise, SMART MOVER was checked late on and should be up to winning a maiden. In the preview, I noted that the John Quinn yard had not had many runners recently. Their well being was confirmed later on the card when they did have a winner.
Saturday 4 April – Kempton
This maiden race threw up a surprise result as ROSEALEE, Frederik Tylicki riding for Jeremy Gask, took full advantage of a gap opening up on the rail to win by half a length. ANWAR, second her last week filled the same position with JUST MY LORD, fourth in the Brocklesby close up in third.
Starting at 16/1, it appears that the some of the connections of ROSEALEE were not particularly confident as their tweet on Friday implied.
Before the race, Jeremy Gask had a 2yo record of 4/86 and none of these had won before August. Afterwards he said “She has just been so honest since we bought her. She has just wanted to please us right from the moment we started doing work with her. We don’t make it a priority to get the two-year-olds going early, but if they are willing to go we won’t stop them. She came here and galloped last week in a good time. I thought if she can finish like that she would be there or thereabouts.” From his website today, we are also told “She was up against some very strong opposition from the biggest yards in the UK. After a smart start she travelled nicely in a good position behind the leaders and with a furlong to go it looked as though she was going to run a very satisfying third against horses that had previously run. But as they dashed for the line she took off and won nicely with jockey Frederik Tylicki saying afterwards there was more to come. Connections are dreaming of Royal Ascot.”
https://twitter.com/jeremygask/status/584464473358004224
In a similar vein, Richard Hannon did not appear to be overly confident with the chances of ANWAR as he stated on his website ”Previous experience can mean a lot on the all-weather, so we hope that Anwar, who made a promising debut last week, might be able to go one better in the opener. He bumped into a good one there and maybe Mark Johnston has another up his sleeve in Tawakkol, but our filly has taken her race well and is ready to roll again.” ANWAR has now traded at lows of 1.31 and 1.27 in her two runs to date.
It would appear that both ANWAR and JUST MY LORD probably ran to similar marks as their respective debuts. Whether, ROSEALEE can follow up, remains to be seen.
Sunday 5 April – Musselburgh
A field of four newcomers went to post for the maiden auction race and POWERALLIED, who had been entered for the Brocklesby, gave Richard Fahey his first 2yo win of the season. Despite opening at 6/5 and drifting to 15/8 on the off, the Camacho colt put in a professional performance to win by 1½ lengths.
The outsider of the four, BABY BALLERINA, finished second and despite looking green early on was staying on at the finish.
AYRESOME ANGEL was backed in from 6/1 to 3/1 and led on the rail for most of the contest.
ARIZE went off favourite but was outpaced and green early on. She may be worthy of consideration next time out, as David Brown has already had a 2yo winner.
Two Year Old Racing 2015 