FINLEY Marsh has caught the eye recently.

It was only a Class 5 0-75 five-furlong handicap that Goodwood Crusader won at Brighton last Friday, but Marsh gave him a super ride to win it.

They went hard up front, favourite Otomo and Island Cloud and Peachy Carnehan – the first two ridden by Silvestre de Sousa and Jim Crowley respectively – went toe-to-toe-to-toe up front from early, but the young rider was happy to let them at it. He sat still on his horse, he allowed them at it up front, to the point where, when they started to level up for home, he was stone last of the six runners and fully eight lengths behind the leaders, which is a lot in a five-furlong race.

Not only that, but the young rider chose to chart a path between horses. He resisted the temptation to go wide, around the field, a manoeuvre that would have cost him ground and probably momentum too. He went the most efficient route, through traffic towards the inside, found the gaps, hit the front inside the final furlong and came nicely clear to win by a length and a half.

It wasn’t the ride of an 18-year-old who had ridden just eight winners in his life. It was ride a real Richard Hughes-esque ride. And guess who is Marsh’s boss. Guess who trains Goodwood Crusader.

THE headline-writers have to write headlines and all, but a bookmaker running scared of a short-priced Royal Ascot ‘acca’ - Ribchester, Churchill, Order Of St George, Caravaggio and Winter, in case you’ve missed it – is like a child running scared of an ice cream van.