held up mid-division, headway over 2f, stayed on final furlong
mid-division, pushed along over 3f, soon outpaced
mid-division, effort over 2f, no impression
slowly into stride, soon prominent, effort when hampered over 1f, no extra
held up behind leaders, smooth progress to lead over 1f, ridden and kept on well final furlong
took keen hold behind leaders, effort over 2f, weakened final furlong
never better than mid-divison
held up, headway over 2f, ridden and stayed on final furlong
dwelt, held up towards rear, headway over 2f, onepaced final furlong
towards rear, some late headway, never near to challenge
prominent, not much room over 1f, stayed on final furlong
slowly into stride, soon went prominent, pushed along over 2f, outpaced final 2 furlongs
led, ridden and headed over 1f, stayed on same pace final furlong
After two decent performances so far, Nashwan Star looks capable of getting off the mark; the rest look hard to assess, but Caribbean Man and Ijtihad could be the best of them. The selection, trained by Barry Hills, began her career with a good third in a Newbury maiden that has worked out very well (fourth, fifth and sixth have all won since). She failed to progress as expected when a distant third to Ocean Silk at Chester next time, but the winner went on to land the Lupe Stakes and Nashwan Star is unlikely to find anything of that calibre here. Ijtihad showed promise when staying on late into sixth place on his reappearance, and the fact that Richard Hills rides this in preference to the newcomer, Kawader, speaks in his favour. Caribbean Man ran abysmally when an odds-on favourite at Yarmouth last time but had earlier shaped with plenty of encouragement on his debut at Newmarket and Sir Michael Stoute's colt should not be written off just yet.
