Horse update:
Kevin Ryan's Commander Han made it third time lucky when winning at Chelmsford today. Readers will note from the entries page, scrolling to Kevin Ryan's Group Entries, that this son of Siyouni has always been held in high regard by connections but disappointed on both two-year-old starts.
There was little disgrace in finishing down the field in the Convivial Maiden Stakes at York on debut. A hugely competitive race with prize money over £40,000.
Punters were not happy to see this chestnut colt fail miserably at Redcar when starting even money favourite and making it look hard work from the start before scorching home all too late to finish fourth.
In truth, those formative races were a learning curve and experience is the key to this horse one-year wiser.
Kevin Ryan will be pleased to see a win come his way because I suspect he was quite hopeful on this horse's racecourse bow and almost certain at Redcar.
Today's win over 7f was impressive by lengths won but the odds-on favourite was the only opposition. Whether David Simcock's horse disappointed or just beaten by a class horse is a matter of opinion.
Commander Han doesn't hold any significant three-year-old entries as yet but I'm sure this handler will be assessing his next run under a penalty which will give a truer reflection of what this colt may be able to achieve. Good to see those initial hope have materialised into one win with more to come.