Trueshan’s Nottingham defeat leaves Alan mystified

April 12

Trueshan fans got their wish when the heavens opened at Nottingham on Tuesday, turning the ground to “soft, heavy in places”,

But our stable-star, who started at 4-9 today to repeat his success in the Listed Further Flight Stakes 12 months ago, failed to pick up in the last quarter-mile, and the enterprisingly-ridden 16-1 shot Rajinsky beat off the challenge of the favourite by half a length.

In his defence, Trueshan was conceding 7lb to the winner, but he would have been 12lb worse off if this race had been a handicap, and Alan confessed he was “very disappointed”.

He said:”Trueshan has not run a bad race, but I had expected more. Hollie (Doyle) thought that she would win three out, but she said a furlong later she knew she was beat.

“I just worry that Trueshan has had a lot of very hard battles, and maybe it is starting to leave its mark on him mentally.

“That is what concerns me more than anything else, but we ought to know more after his next race, though I don’t know yet where that might be.”

Looking back on Trueshan’s career – he has won 13 of his 22 races so far – Alan added:”He has had some brutally hard races. He got jarred up at Goodwood, and, though we got him back for Doncaster, he was subjected to yet another hard, deep race there. He was remembering Goodwood and did not let himself down, and even though we got him back for Ascot, that was yet another gruelling race.”

Alan did not accept that race fitness played a part in Trueshan’s defeat. “He has worked awfully well and we don’t weigh our horses, but we had to go for an extra long girth to get around him today – he looked really big and powerful.

“After the race, he was having a nice blow without an excessive one, and I don’t want to use that as an excuse. I’d be a liar if I didn’t say I was disappointed. I am very disappointed, but the next race will tell us a lot.”