Alternative Fact ran a very encouraging race on debut at Newmarket when finishing second here in the middle of August. He was only beaten half a length by a horse with experience and we expected him to improve on that run when next seen. The son of Dalakhani was given a month in between his races and then headed to Salisbury on Friday to contest a Median Auction over a mile on soft ground.
Our colt bounced out of the stalls well and went straight to the head of affairs. He settled in front and set an even tempo with the well supported Rashdan tracking him and the second favourite Deyaarna sat just in behind the front two. Alternative Fact travelled sweetly into the straight and one by one his rivals started to come off the bridle in behind. Kieran Shoemark asked the Dalakhani colt to go and win his race two furlongs from home and he put daylight between himself and his rivals, being kept up to his work to win by six lengths.
This was an impressive performance by Alternative Fact and he stepped up on a promising debut in style. He seemed uncomplicated and the manner in which he finished off his race suggested he could be an exciting middle distance prospect next year. The second horse Deyaarna showed promise on his debut at Newmarket and our horse beat him comfortably and whilst this was only a Novice Median Auction race, it was hard not to be taken by the display our colt produced. He looks the type who will continue to develop physically and he is far from the finished article at this stage. His dam O Fourlunda was placed over 5 ½ furlongs but she is by The Eclipse winner Halling. His sire Dalakhani progressed to win an Arc and he tends to produce horses that get better as they mature.
Congratulations to the colt’s owners The Alternative Lot. The syndicate is made up by some long standing owners who have been fantastic supporters of the yard and some new enthusiastic owners too. We hope that Alternative Fact can step forward on this in the future and prove himself a smart colt. Well done to everyone at La Grange, it has been a productive couple of weeks and this win brought up our eighth winner in September.