MIKE is back from Dubai for J&B Met week and said on Monday that he wasn’t disappointed in 13-20 favourite Gibraltar Blue’s unplaced run in Saturday’s Grade 1 Cape Flying Championship over 1000m at Kenilworth.

He said: “I did caution before the race that she was way up in class from her impressive win in the Gardena Sprint. She was up against a number of top sprinters last Saturday and I was worried that they may run her off her feet.

Gibraltar Blue was run out of the first four very late after pacing it out with What A Winter, the three-year-old star jockey Karl Neisius is reported in the media as having said is the perhaps the best sprinter he’s ridden.

Mike commented: “She pulled up very well and she’s on target for Saturday’s Majorca Stakes. If the Cape Flying Championship was seen as purely a pipe-opener for the Majorca she would have been praised for a good run, which it was. She’ll be a factor on Saturday.”

He responded to comments about the filly going down “short”  and said: “She seems to go down scratchy because she’s a keen filly and this happens when she’s restrained on the canterdown.”

Said jockey Anton Marcus: ” “She was up against the best sprinters around and she is six months behind them. I don’t think she was disappointing.”