Juvenile Watch: Sunny Orange looks a smart youngster

I have a feeling that the Madri Excepcional Maiden Stakes run at Leicester last Saturday will prove to be an above-average race, with a lot of smart types involved.

Plenty of the early two-year old winners this season will be bred specifically for that job - ‘early speed’, as it’s known - with both sides of their pedigree usually loaded with fast five, and six, furlong performers. Of course, you have trainers who excel with early types, too.

However, I’m always on the search for the opposite - a youngster with a more stout pedigree from a trainer not necessarily renowned for first time out two-year old winners.

The winner on Saturday, Sunny Orange, who is trained by Ralph Beckett, is exactly this. His dam, Orangey Red, was a solid but unspectacular performer over seven furlongs and didn’t make her racecourse debut until late June.

His sire, Expert Eye, was a high-class performer as a two-year old but he also made his debut in late June and again never raced over shorter than six and a half furlongs.

Sunny Orange was given time to learn in that Leicester contest and certainly displayed plenty of signs of immaturity when initially hanging under pressure but, once the penny dropped, he showed a smart turn of foot and was drawing further clear with every stride.

I would expect to see him upped to six furlongs for his next start and, based upon his pedigree, I would fully expect him to stay seven furlongs later this year.

It is hard to assess the merit of the form, but he was visually impressive in beating rivals with speedier pedigrees.

Beverley is one of my favourite tracks to pinpoint eyecatchers in the juvenile division as, more often than not, you can find one who failed to cope with the camber of the track.

The Grant Tuer-trained newcomer, Mersea, definitely found the track hard to handle when making her debut over five furlongs last Thursday. She was slow to break from the stalls and struggled to find her rhythm in the early stages but, two-furlongs from home, she started to make some progress, only to then lurch right-handed towards the rail. Her rider, Sam James, did well to re-organise her and she picked up well in the last half-furlong to flash home.

The daughter of Born To Sea is certain to step forward for this experience and, given that Beverley is a stiff track and the fact she is in possession of a fairly stout pedigree, it may be that she will be better when stepped up a furlong.

Whatever the trip, she warrants close attention on her next start.

The contest to be the leading first-season sire is always an interesting one to watch develop. This time last year, we already had the surprise package, Ardad, deliver a number of winners.

This year, the competition has been somewhat slower to ignite. Sioux Nation has been widely tipped to claim the crown and, given that he covered a massive 241 mares during his debut season at stud, he certainly isn’t going to lack firepower.

His sire, Scat Daddy, was an exceptional performer as a two-year-old and had made a fine start to his stud career by producing speedsters such as Lady Aurelia and Caravaggio, prior to his premature death in 2015.

Sioux Nation was the winner of the Norfolk Stakes at Royal Ascot and the Phoenix Stakes at the Curragh in a highly successful first season before he possibly failed to train on as a three-year-old.

He already has two winners to his name as a sire. Ocean Quest was a winner at the Curragh for Jessica Harrington and Brave Nation was an ultra-impressive scorer at Doncaster for Michael Bell.

In the coming days, he is due to be represented by Balkeel, Lakota Lady and Indian Renegade, all of who possess a solid chance of adding to his tally of winners.