i can understand if you just watched this race without any prior knowledge of the horses that you would think queally went too soon and should of done better,but i think he rode a good race.
go back to middays york run against sariska,sariska made all and quickened away from her in a 4 runner race.since then she as ran in bigger fields and won all her starts coming into this bar her 2nd in the breeders cup.that day she earned the formbook comments "unable to quicken".us turf racing around those tight bends would not of generated the better pace she needs.
in contrast,SNA when he came of the last bed at chester,simply flew home for a easy 9l win to draw away by that distance with only a furlong to go shows what amazing quickening speed he as.
then we come to this race,the last thing queally wanted is a sprint finish with SNA.i thought with 5 runners,it will simply be a 2-3 furlong sprint with SNA winning.
the pace was not great.4 horses were held up types and only dandino had raced prominently recently and it was him who had to make the running.both SNA and indian days were running keen,and unless there chronic pullers which either arent ,its a sure indication that they wanted to go faster early on.
queally knowing this,decided to make his move first.he also cheekily checked SNA in the process,to try and stop his momentum and it did look like a winning move.however,once switched ,he simply showed that amazing quickening speed once again,and from been a few lengths down furlong to go,won in the end by a length.
at the end of the day ,everything was in SNA favour.small field which resulted in a sprint finish and SNA had the best quickening ability in such circumstances .aiden o brien ran no pacemaker as well which is unusual for him to do so in a group 1 middle distance event.
in hindsight ,cecil could of ran a pacemaker to help,but it would of probably been ignored anyway.
so all in all,queally lost by 1 length ,if it was simple dual 2-3 furlongs from home i think it could of been a lot worse so think he rode a brave race to do what he did on a horse with inferior quickening speed.
midday will do better in decent size fields with a better pace in future.theres no reason why she cant do well in the races she ran in last year against her own sex.
SNA as to be nailed on for the breeders cup turf.he as shown when coming of a bend he can move so quickly to put the race to bed.the arc as been strongly run in last few years and dont think that race will suit him.