Ben Curtis rode a bad race on Tis Marvellous in the Beverley Bullet. He had clearly decided that he was going to wait for a gap on the rail and it never materialised. The one to note from that race is the runner up Queens Gift, from the Michael Dods yard. It came into the race on the back of two ordinary handicap wins and ran a cracker in second. She could well turn out to be another Mabs Cross next season. She was drawn one, next to the favourite but when she got out of trouble she found extra in the final furlong. Ironically, the best ride of the day was in the apprentice race at the end. Harrison Shaw is clearly a lad with something between his ears. It was obvious he had been instructed to stick to the inside rail on well-backed favourite Gylo but he realised that the gap was never going to come, his horse was full of running so he took a pull, came out wide and won going away. Need to send Curtis the video! One for the horse tracker in the second last: Montatham. Had a penalty for winning a maiden, was long odds on to oblige as Dane O’Neill’s only ride. He did just enough to win cosily. Lovely looking grey colt with just three runs on the clock, must be staying in training next year to reward Hamdan’s patience. I had two different sources tell me the unraced two year old Rachmaninov for Lingfield so I had a look at it. It is owned by Khalid Abdullah and is very heavily bred to two lines of Mizzen Mast (its sire). Clearly every dog in Newmarket was barking it as it was backed from 100/30 to 9/4 but Cosgrave gave it an easy time once it had no chance. Bet it will be odds on next time...
