This was a well judged ride from Civaci, who took back Friendly Ghost after a fast opening furlong of 12.21s (ranked 2nd) to ride him patiently behind a fast pace. A race finishing speed of under 92% would suggest that the leaders went too hard and the fact that the pace setting Criminal Intent and It’s Time to Shine both finished well beaten would attest to that point. As much as 8-lengths behind the pace as they entered the far turn, Friendly Ghost made almost continuous headway from the 4-furlong pole, switching wide into the straight to make his challenge. Once in the clear, he has responded well to his rider’s encouragement and readily run down the runner-up, Summer Commander, closing with furlong splits of 12.15 and 12.56s to take 1.13s out of his rival over the final quarter of a mile. Galloping on through the line, Friendly Ghost ran out a comfortable winner with the best run-out speed in the field at 33.82 mph. As a 3-year-old, he was thought good enough to run in the King’s Plate, finished 3rd in the trial last July before an 11th placed finish in the race itself. He has missed a lot of time in the interim period, but the fact that he was sent off as the 4.5 favourite in the pools for this return would suggest that he had been showing plenty of spark in the mornings in preparation for this comeback. On this evidence, he may yet be able to make up for lost time and take the next step into graded company.

We could leave the analysis of the Elgin Stakes there, but there is a valid point to make about the horse that finished 7th, Kekoa. He completely blew the start, veering the left and looking almost unsteerable for Fraser Aelby. At that point, his rider could have been forgiven for dismounting, but to Selby’s credit, he kept riding. I say that he kept riding, we can’t really be sure because his mount isn’t shown in the replay because of how far behind he was. However, the sectional data shows that he made up a lot of ground and was the fastest horse in the race for furlongs 4, 5 and 6 as he finished rather well. He came into this race after a 2nd placed finish in the Lake Superior Stakes and whilst his antics at the start are a concern, he is worth noting next time as the “7” in his form figures won’t be a true reflection of the race he ran on Sunday.