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BOLD Impact, a half-brother to a Group 3 winner over seven furlongs, took a while to find his feet on racecourse debut in Newmarket’s Novice Stakes (3.45pm) last Sunday but caught the eye running home strongly in the final furlongs, writes Page Fuller.

To start with, we can put a number on how slow he was out of the stalls, as he took 3.31 seconds to reach 20mph leaving the stalls. In comparison, the winner only took 2.68 seconds to reach 20mph, so there’s room for improvement.

It was also interesting how his average stride length through the race reflected how long it took him to get ‘into stride’. In the first furlong he had the joint shortest average stride length at only 6.79 metres.

As the race progressed, it got longer as expected, but longer relative to the field as well. By the final two furlongs he was operating with the longest stride length of the field, reaching a maximum of 8.05 metres.

While all of these were having their first taste of a racecourse and are entitled to improve for the run, I believe he is the one to watch next time out.

He learnt quickly on the job as the data suggests, so if he can put that to good use in a similar contest next time, his beaten distance of three lengths could easily turn into a winning one instead.