Hi Imagele,

Sound Action had an easy enough run and was able to make them go very slow early and turn it into a sprint home. The final section of 34.49 was the 2nd fastest of the day and was quicker than the Goodwood which is remarkable for a 2500m event. Thats not to say there was anything remarkable about the race, it just highlights how slow they went early...the final time was very slow as a result.

There's any argument that says Sound Action didn't run the trip and that may be true. At this stage though I would prefer to think that up to 7 straight runs in what was effectively her first campaign and going from 1225 to 2500 at group level was a bit too much....especially for a filly. It's a huge ask for any horse and not too many do it successfully.

The trainer clearly didn't have the Oaks in mind when she started her preparation and nor would you expect her to. It seemed a case where Sound Action showed increasing ability each time she race and then they started to think about targetting something big...like the Oaks. One thing is for sure, if you were going to genuinely plan to target a race like the that she wouldn't have had that kind of preparation and certainly not that many runs before hand. The risk of going over the top and training off with such a young horse is far too great...and I think thats what happened.

The top 3 placegetter were all much more seasoned than Sound Action and had what you would call conventional preparations for such a race.

So I don't necessarily think it was the distance that beat her, I think it was her preparation and attempting to do a bit too much first time in.

Now that they know the ability she has things will be a bit different next time. With a good spell and carefully planned preparation culminating is something big like the VRC Oaks in the Spring i'm sure she will be much better equipped to show her best.