| 06 May
| So, you seen some of the others and Ouqba is still hanging on
to his tenuous position as the best combination of type and readiness for
today although you suspect that Cool Art, Desire To Excel and probably
Heliodor will all be rated more highly by season's end. And then, hello,
who's that. After all that laid backness and lack of shine see what your
reaction to this one pushing itself into view might have been (Picture).
A bit wild and on his toes but the tallest of the group and with a let-me-at-them
attitude. A bit light through the body but very powerful in both in front
and in the hindquarters. He's got a somewhat upright and gawky neck that
is not unusual in his sire's offspring (Royal Applause) and hasn't stopped
Third Set (for example) from getting pretty near to the top. You look at
him some more and try to convince yourself he has enough power through
the body to be as good as he looks. This Picture
shows him when he'd settled down a bit and wasn't up on his toes and dispels
any lack of strength questions.
The Profile has to be mentally updated with the thought that a mistake
has been made. Tregoning really wouldn't be running a Hamdan owner bred
this early at Newmarket because he was average. As one Paddock Reviewer
said having seen him - "..if this thing knows enough to keep in the
race he's going to be all sorts of trouble for [the much smaller] Ouqba
in the final furlong..". At 5/4 for Ouqba and 10/1 for Finjaan the
disparity in SP is too much given the interplay between raw ability and
preparedness visible.
Finjaan wins well and the trainer gave the impression afterwards that he
hadn't done much with him but wanted to run him because of the ability
he had shown. Hamdan's retained jockey was on Ouqba for his father and
another example of how difficult his job is to choose between the Hamdan
runners. Anyway, a horse to take very seriously because he did seem to
win comfortably on raw ability and can improve a lot for increased mental
maturity. He has the physical scope to improve and compete at Group level
as well.
|
![[Picture]](../../08_Publish_Pics/Finjaan_081018_nmkt1.jpg){kind=link}
