raced keenly, held up in touch, effort on inner over 2f out, driven to lead inside final furlong, ran on
led, narrowly headed over 3f out, led again 1f out, soon headed and wandered under pressure, edged right final 100 yards, no extra near finish
tracked leaders, ridden along 4f out, weakened over 2f out
soon pressed leader, led narrowly over 3f out headed 1f out, ridden and every chance approaching final furlong, one pace and held when slightly hampered final 100 yards
held up in rear, one pace under pressure and no impression on leaders final 2f
close up, ridden halfway, weakened quickly over 3f out, tailed off
dwelt, soon recovered to track leaders, not handle down hill and outpaced 4f out, shaken up and stayed on again final furlong
reluctant to load in stalls, always behind
Sir Michael Stoute's Maharaat ran with promise in the Wood Ditton on his debut and, while open to plenty of improvement, the form of the race has taken a few knocks so preference is for Fine Palette, who is preferred to Seven Year Itch. The last mentioned made an encouraging debut on the Polytrack in November and should come on for the experience. He makes more appeal than James Toller's Pagan Magic, who is far from certain to handle the cut in the ground. John Hills has his team in good form at present so it would come as no surprise to see Masked step up on his debut effort but the vote goes to Fine Palette. Henry Cecil's four-year-old has only seen the racecourse once in his career, looking green but staying on well into second place (beaten three-quarters of a length) in a Redcar maiden in November last year. He should have learned from that experience, should not be inconvenienced by the underfoot conditions and gets the nod.
