Hazarfan
Good afternoon from Newmarket, where we are revelling in sunshine once again! Our local track is officially described as good to firm and hopefully won’t be too fast, which has encouraged me to declare a couple there on Friday and we will be busier tomorrow. In the meantime we stick to artificial surfaces and we have just one runner at Lingfield this afternoon.
That one runner is Hazarfan, who goes in the mile and a half 0-75 handicap at 2.50. This horse showed a bit last year, finishing not too far behind Old Persian and Gronkowski on debut and then chasing home Stephensons Rocket when finishing second at Redcar. Those runs would lead you to believe he is very well in from a rating of 74, but things haven’t gone so smoothly this year. He finished in the midfield at Newbury on his comeback, albeit in a good race won by the Chester Vase winner Young Rascal, before disappointing when favourite at Wolverhampton.
Clearly that leaves us with a question mark over the all-weather, but given the state of the weather and the fact he needs a run, we have little option but to try our hand in this. I remain hopeful that he has a future in middle distance handicaps from this sort of rating, but this looks a hot race. The likely favourite is Crystal King, who actually finished behind Hazarfan at Newbury in the spring, and Saeed bin Suroor’s Mokhles also looks a danger. Fingers crossed for a good run.
All the best,
Ed.