WITH the racing at Newmarket this weekend, it would have been easy to forget we had two days of racing up at York too, writes Page Fuller. There was one loser in particular that I thought was unlucky and that was Soowaih in the apprentice handicap on Friday.

Apprentice races are rarely truly run races, and this was no exception. They set off a nice pace clocking around 12 and a half second furlongs in the second and third furlongs but steadied it right up over the next half-mile. It took them 14 seconds to travel through the sixth furlong, this sudden collapse in the pace caused Soowaih to start running very keen.

Despite trying to sabotage his chances by pulling hard, he was there to challenge when the pace lifted. For a moment it looked like he wasn’t able to get a run, but when the gaps opened he made good use of them. Unfortunately for him, Lieber Power found one last burst of energy to deny him, but I think it is a sign of what is to come.

He recorded the highest finishing speed percentage of the two days at York at 110.71%. This shows how well he was able to quicken. He had been showing signs prior to this race that Jim Goldie is finding the key to him.

Based on this I think he is one to watch next time in a more conventionally-run mile and a quarter.