Easycall has difficult task against Abou Zouz

Luke Ardley
Tuesday 20 August 1996 23:02 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Many approaches to juvenile form are polarised between a generally low estimate of the younger horses' abilities and the leap of faith which attends the advent of each new "wonder horse", beyond rational rating.

Yet there can be little explanation of how horses regularly bridge the gap between maidens and Group company, unless they have already displayed such a level of form in lesser competition.

Good horses are perfectly capable of showing their full ability before maturity and the tell-tale sign is so often a fast debut time. The Prix Morny winner, Bahamian Bounty, offers just such an example, vindicating an Independent rating of 115 assigned immediately after the Newmarket July meeting where he first appeared.

Precocious two-year-olds are generally a match for their elders on the rare occasions they are pitched against each other on weight-for-age terms.

The Nunthorpe Stakes has been such a battleground in the recent past - Lyric Fantasy took the Group One event as a juvenile in 1992 - and tomorrow's lacklustre renewal would have been ripe for the picking by a smart two- year-old.

Pivotal is only a marginal choice to confirm Royal Ascot form with Mind Games in an event where there are no world beaters.

Easycall, who shoulders a penalty in today's Gimcrack Stakes is one from the juvenile division who would be close on the heels of the older sprinters. His form entitles him to win today, but Abou Zouz, a stable mate of Bahamian Bounty, showed tremendous speed and promise on his debut. He looks a major challenger now his trainer, David Loder, has his horses in overdrive.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in