Topwarrior gave him a good go on the front end at Ayr, but he probably went too quickly and paid the price.
He ended up finishing in fourth, which was a very solid effort when you consider they went extremely quickly. He was pressed for the lead, which is never an ideal situation, and the closers had every chance to come and claim the win.
Tom Marquand gave Pierian no chance whatsoever. She was drawn low enough to get a handy spot in the race, but he was content with holding her up in the back two or three. It's annoying because she was coming home strongly at the finish, but she could only do so much when she was ten lengths behind the leaders turning for home.
Time To Turn 11/4 – Newmarket 2.25
In races like this, I do try to avoid the younger horses as they don't get much weight for age allowance (especially at this stage of the season), and they aren't as physically mature as the older horses. However, when you look at the standard of this race, the horses like Flora Of Bermuda and Never So Brave aren't exactly pumping out crazily high numbers.
Flora Of Bermuda probably deserves the spot as the market favourite, as she has done a lot of winning this season, but she hasn't beaten great horses in her wins, and has been beaten a couple of times too. Never So Brave clearly isn't the same horse as last year when he won a Group 1, and you've got to take him on. The Balding horse is the best horse on his day, but he's not been at that level for a long time.
Time To Turn's form wouldn't look great if you were to look at it at face value. He was thumped by his stablemate by five lengths, and was then sixth in a Group 1 in France. The France form is now very strong, with multiple horses going on to win races since, including Group 1s. Being off the pace in the Deauville race wasn't the place to be, so you can cut him some slack for that run, but he wasn't a million miles away.
He has only raced twice this season, and both were good efforts. I believe there is more to come; whether he'll make it to the top, who knows, but I think this is a nice opportunity to land a Group 2.
Forty Years On 5/2 – Newmarket 4.10
Unfortunately, I haven't been on the hype train with Forty Years On this year, and she has been very good. I'm fairly certain I tipped her up on her intended run at this track on her first start of the season, but she withdrew. Since then, she has gotten two wins and last time out in a Group 3, she made a decent effort to finish fourth.
She stays seven furlongs well and does power home over that trip, but I think the drop in trip on a stiff(ish) track will be perfectly fine for her. She has shown a good cruising speed through her races this year, and knowing that she stays further has to be a huge positive at a track like Newmarket when you've got to gain momentum after the dip.
Hector Crouch not being on board is a slight concern, as he is the jockey for the owners.
GambleAware