Credit Swap makes profit in Cambridgeshire
Newmarket may be the widest racecourse in Europe but, with 35 runners, there was still not much room for manoeuvre in the totesport.com Cambridgeshire.
The market for nine-furlong cavalry charge had been thrown into confusion when the course had turned soft for this meeting and those drawn on the stands’ rail were considered to be at a disadvantage, with Nationalism, the early market leader for the race before the draw was made, drifting a little in the market in the hours before the race, before stabilising just before the start.
The only certainty was that the field would split into two groups, with those in the low-number boxes electing to stay on the stands’ rail, rather than risk losing too much ground by trying to tack across the width of the track in the hope of finding better ground on the far rail. Camerooney led the far side while Taamer, the topweight, headed those who had stayed on the near-side rail, tracked by Nationalism.
Credit Swap, a late booking for jockey Jim Crowley, was towards the rear of the main group passing the five-furlong point by which time Jo’burg had taken over on the other side of the track. But his chances of taking over the race were always looking slim and then they became none at all as Credit Swap burst through the pack to beat Steele Tango by three-quarters of a length, with Pires third and Sandor fourth.
As ever this race, which runs more like 10 furlongs than nine, was a thorough stamina test. And the winner certainly did not lack for fitness having finished a half-length third at Ascot on Sunday and then a just a neck fourth at Newmarket on Thursday. However, while Credit Swap had been getting plenty of recent practice he was all new to his jockey. “It’s his third run in just over a week and he’s been unlucky his last two times,” Crowley said. “I watched his races – it’s the first time I’ve sat on him – but everything went like clockwork in the race.”
The race may have been straightforward but Crowley took a circuitous route to getting the ride. “I got switched. I was going to Epsom and then I got switched at the last minute – so what a great spare ride.”
Winning trainer Michael Wigham admitted that three races in seven days had not been part of some meticulously conceived plan either. “We train him for this time of the year – to go for the consolation race [the Silver Cambridgeshire] yesterday, which we thought we’d get in. We ran him on Sunday at Ascot, and he was unlucky. Then we thought we’d get in this race and the ground would be too deep for him, because he doesn’t get a mile-and-a-quarter," he said.
“So we ran on Thursday [over a mile] and he was a bit unlucky again. And, when the rain didn’t really come and we thought the ground’s not too bad, why not take our chance as he’s in great form?
“And the horse has got a big heart and he did the rest.”
A big heart and clearly a very fit one too.
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