Juvenile Watch: Plenty of love for Society Kiss

The amount of juvenile races in the calendar are starting to increase as we approach the middle of May, with a good number of two-year olds having their second start. This means that we are slowly start to be able to assess the form with a little more accuracy. 

Society Kiss, from the Ralph Beckett yard, is deserving of a strong mention.

Bought by agent Alex Elliott at the recent Craven Breeze-Up Sale, she is from a proven speedy family, her sire A’Ali, who’s made a promising start with his first crop, was all about speed with each of his five career wins coming over the minimum distance, all bar one of those victories coming at Group Two level.

Her dam One Kiss also showed speed as a juvenile when placed over 5f, though her sole career victory came over a mile. 

Her debut win came at Ascot on Friday. On leaving the stalls she did jump away to her right, but still quickly found her stride to race just in behind the leaders.

She travelled well into contention and made nice progress when asked for an effort before really quickening clear when Hector Crouch got serious with her inside the final furlong, exhibiting signs of understandable greenness when shifting to her left, away from his whip, inside the last half furlong.

Both the second and third placed fillies, Justice Twice and Ruby’s Angel, had finished runner-up on their previous outings, so it’s perfectly feasible that this was an above average debut from Ralph Beckett’s filly. Royal Ascot would look a perfectly reasonable target at this stage.

At Naas on Saturday, Albert Einstein hinted at real star potential. He's another promising two-year old for Coolmore and Aidan O’Brien, winning in impressive fashion over 6f.

In the paddock prior to the race, he looked significantly more mature and developed than any of his six rivals and the same bore true on the track.

Breaking alertly and travelling in a professional yet powerful style, he did take a while to grasp what was required when asked to quicken by jockey Wayne Lordan but he was comfortably on top at the line winning by an expanding length and a quarter, with a further 12 lengths back to the third.

It was interesting to hear from O’Brien in his post race interview that he hadn’t received the benefit of an ‘away day’ in preparation for this and, as such, it would have been the first time in his life that he’d come off the bridle.

This bodes well for the future and I’d expect him to step forward significantly for this experience, the runner-up Evening Blues had the benefit of a previous run and was ultimately well beaten at the line.

The Coventry Stakes at Ascot looks tailor made for this powerful son of Wootton Bassett and I’d be very surprised if he isn’t close to the top of the Ballydoyle pecking order at this stage. He's a top-priced 3-1 in the ante-post lists.

Sioux Perfect (Trainer: Archie Watson) 

A daughter of Sioux Nation, she had her second career start at Ascot, in the race won by Society Kiss, and shaped with a degree more promise than her debut at Beverley.

She still displayed plenty of signs of immaturity when rearing as the stalls opened and wandering when initially coming under pressure. 

However, I liked how she knuckled down in the closing stages and while she may still be a work in progress I’m sure she’ll win races for her sharp trainer, most likely when entering the nursery handicap system.

Recent £1.75m breeze-up purchase Celestial King was understandably subject to plenty of interest before his debut at Ascot on Saturday.

Initially well backed in the early part of Saturday morning, he was noticeably weak in the market prior to the off and turned in a disappointing debut effort, racing up with the pace before weakening drastically, eventually finishing a well beaten fourth. 

I’d be wary of drawing too many conclusions from this initial effort, as it could be trainer Raphael Freire had trained him lightly since his purchase but it’s hard to be too enthusiastic about this effort and my instinct is that this was money poorly spent.

Both the winner of the race Military Code, who defied a penalty, and the runner-up Fitzella, who ran a tremendous race on debut, are worth adding to your Racing TV tracker – I’d be stunned if they weren’t both seen to better effect when racing over 6f.

Declarations for the Listed fillies' contest at York will be made on Wednesday morning. ’d be most interested in Spicy Marg. She’ll bid to follow in the hoof prints of her dam Main Desire, who won this in 2017 for trainer Michael Bell.

Spicy Marg was a professional winner on her debut at Newmarket, staying on strongly to beat the Godolphin-owned Twilight Star, a filly that had the benefit of prior racecourse experience.

I expect Michael Bell’s filly to race prominently and take some heading. If nothing else, her jockey Kieran Shoemark deserves a change of luck.