Confederacy has an easy stroll in the Long Walk

Saturday saw the inaugural running on the Long Walk – GP1 at New Mexico, the track was rated firm and a big crowd had gathered to set the seen for an exciting race. Starting favourite for the 14 furlongs over turf was the last start sakes winner Sadler’s Thorns from the camotion stable; the punters second elect was Confederacy (IRE) who was attempting to break through for his first Group One win after having been placed on four occasions this year. Also attracting interest was Neon Swan and Surgeons Tubes while the remainder of the field was in double figure odds.

As the field was release, it was Confederacy who jumped straight to the lead and was never headed, jockey B.Bennington had him striding freely out if front and the further they ran the more the field struggled to maintain contact. On entering the straight, Confederacy applied the pressure and ran away with the race and on the line had opened a gap of seven lengths. Neon Swan tried to challenge Confederacy for the early lead but was unable to match strides, at the end the early effort took its toll as he started to faded and despite his jockeys’ best efforts was pipped on the line to finish third. Flying home at the end and making a ton of ground late was Surgeon Tubes to finish second a quarter of a length ahead of Neon Swan. Also making ground late was the old war horse Dante (GB), running worst than mid-field throughout he was only one of two who were able to take ground of the winner in the concluding stages of the race.

Burgfly’s Westie pushed forward on release and sat in third tracking the leaders; once the pressure was applied he had no response when called for an effort and collapsed to finish more than 17 lengths of the winner. F S Who took up a good position early and faded to finish down the track in sixth. Flaming Pegasus, the only female in the race, was outclassed by the boys and maybe more competitive against her own sex. Lil Dog E plodded the entire journey and never made an impression at any stage of the race. Disappointing his connections and the punters was the race favourite Sadler’s Thorns, who after sitting back in last could only managed to pass one in the straight to finished ninth. And finely bring up the rear, 37 lengths of the winner, was Christmas Day SS who was out of his league in this class of race.

In the end it was the class horse that prevailed, Confederacy has been building up to this all season and finely collected a well deserve Group One victory. Let’s hope that his connections how head to the Breeders Bowl and takes on the big boys as he has shown in the past he is more than capable being competitive against the very best. The remainder of the field were in a different class to the winner, Surgeon Tubes showed some potential after coming into this with some average performances. Neon Swan may have found the distance beyond him and I would prefer over shorter distance. Dante (GB) looks to have his best behind him; while the rest of the field were simply outclassed.