Thoughts on Deceiver

Deceiver makes his debut this afternoon at Ffos Las in the 2.00. Rossa Ryan rides the Cracksman colt in the one mile novice race.

Deceiver is out of Penny Drops and is a half brother to Outgate. Outgate won four times for the yard before being sold to Hong Kong. He is a big scopey horse who will improve as a three year old. He has done some nice work at home and we are looking forward to getting him on the track.

Arrest is the only horse with form, and it is a very high standard. The BHA introduced the novice system a few years ago. The system advantages a small group of talented horses but does very little for the sport as a whole. It creates uncompetitive races such as this. It means that races such as the Royal Lodge have small fields, connections tend to target soft options. Arrest has a higher RPR than both the first and second had going into that race. Arrest ought to have been competitive in that race. The reason given for the change was that these horses need to learn and develop. It will be interesting to see what Arrest will learn from running against four un-raced horses.

The race has conditions specifically designed to encourage people to race more staying types – something the BHA are very keen to promote. The question is how does the prospect of running in races like this encourage an ordinary owner to invest in more staying horses? The staying races would be far better if they were programmed as maidens. Maiden winners can then compete against each other in novice races which for all they would have small fields would at least be competitive races.

Deceiver runs in the colours of Oakemere Homes. He was bred by Gary and Lesley Middlebrook. He will be led up today by James Pulley who cares for him at home.