Thursday 25 April 2019

Thursday's 2yo Update (25th April)


A couple of quiet days. 

Avid readers would have noticed that Mark Johnston's Companion (pictured) won on the nod at Great Yarmouth on Wednesday [2:00]. This bay daughter of Dark Angel battled well to the line. She was backed from 11/2 - 4/1. The interesting point for this post is that this filly had been given a class 2 entry. From our analysis, this was a significant entry, which proved to be the case. 

Let's take a look at tomorrow's racing. Do we have any significantly entered two-year-olds? 

 1:40 Beverley -  

Tim Easterby has started this Flat turf season with verve. Eight two-year-olds have raced so far and Iva Go looks to be the star of the show so far. This daughter of Ivawood was very well backed on debut (although drifted to big odds on the exchanges before the money came). I was impressed with this filly would put down a serious challenge and led the eventual winner, Exclusively, who continued a victorious early season for in-form Archie Watson. This auction stakes, by nature, is a limited race type, which often favours experienced juvenile, especially those with an element of ability. Iva Go is a decent horse at this grade and it would be a surprise if she doesn't lead these a merry dance. 

2:15 Beverley - 

This may be the weaker of the two divisions. Time will tell. There is one significantly-entered juvenile going here in the shape of Gracie's Girl, trained by Mick Appleby. As detailed in one of the previous posts, he is a handler who can string a surprise with debutantes and we stated although we wouldn't bet on this horse on debut we certainly wouldn't have been laying it to lose. This daughter of Heeraat was hampered leaving the stalls but ran on with some spirit to finish third at odds of 25/1. This filly looks a great yearling purchase at just £4,000 considering she is out of a fair dam in Queen's Revenge who won on debut and raced at listed class. In truth, the debut of Gracie's Girl is difficult to assess. The winner, Copacabana Dancer, made the most of his experience while the rest of the field got in each other's way or disappointed. It will be interesting to see what Gracie's Girl can do today as she should improve for that first effort. 

Photo: Gareth Coote