Monty Python

What a strange race. Virtually everyone had written J'ai Un Reve off before the race even started, as his training team said he was not only far from fully developed, but slow out of the gate and not much different once he got going. As a result, it turns out the plan was to give him a quiet run to build up some experience and nothing else. Well, he rocketed out of the gate, taking the jockey by surprise, and by the time he'd realised he'd got something quite different underneath him to what he'd been told to expect, the race had moved up a gear. Had he been told simply to follow his instinct, I don't think he would have taken the final line he did for the run-in, as he could have given himself more space for a sprint. As such, seventh is bitterly disappointing, especially for a horse costing as much as he did, handled by what is supposed to be a dream team. They couldn't even tell the jockey what to expect, and need to be asking why he runs so different for someone that has just sat on him for the first time. I'd be lying if I said I was happy, but, in some ways, as long as things pick up from here, it's probably better for the horse's development than a debut win that would put him in a different league all too quickly.