ARABIAN Leopard, who won the six-furlong fillies’ handicap at Newmarket on Thursday, has been a tough horse to get a handle on over the last couple of seasons, but she seems to have blossomed for her drop back to six furlongs this season, writes Page Fuller.

They previously campaigned her as a middle-distance horse. But her best performances have come in her last four starts over six furlongs, and her win last Thursday illustrates why she will excel at this trip.

The early pace was strong, with the leader posting ‘fast’ and ‘par’ sectionals through furlongs one and two. However, Arabian Leopard, took three seconds to reach 20mph and completed the first furlong nearly a second slower than the leader. This meant she was able to let the early rush unfold in front of her whilst keeping her powder dry.

She then came powerfully into contention two furlongs from home, and her turn of foot and ability to maintain it to the line was exceptional. She was the only horse in the race to clock a sub 11-second furlong, and her Top Speed of 41.4mph in the penultimate furlong was the third quickest of the meeting.

Her final two-furlong time of 22.58 seconds was the fastest of the meeting. In fact, compared to the 305 winning horses in our database at the Rowley Mile course, it was the eighth quickest final two-furlong time we’ve seen, and her final furlong time (11.65 seconds) was the sixth fastest.

A strongly-run six furlongs on a stiff track like Newmarket looks perfect to make use of both her speed and stamina and, now the pieces of the puzzle are finally slotting together, it will be interesting to see what level she ends up reaching in what’s currently a weak division.