Horses to follow: Trackside Live team with horses for My Stable

Jackknife (Roger Varian)

29 May – Sandown – Listed Heron Stakes

We appreciate we may not win any awards for this insight, but Jackknife has to be the horse to follow out of the Heron Stakes, finishing quickly to steal third from a fading Pellitory in a particularly eye-catching manner.

We’re here to talk about paddock though and this colt ticks all the boxes: physically impressive, almost black, colt who was feeling in high spirits with the occasional kick out as he took in preliminaries.

Whilst he isn’t a ‘will come on for the run’ candidate, you have to anticipate a colt having his second outing will improve for the experience and you’d also like to think that a step up to ten furlongs would be ideal – half-brother Defoe won the 1m4f Group 1 Coronation Cup amidst an extensive Group haul over middle-distances.

Moonjid (Marcus Tregoning)

29 May – Sandown - Starsports.Bet Handicap

Horses after a break always warrant paddock interest and we were pleasantly surprised by the appearance of Moonjid, who was fit enough for his seasonal return– and, perhaps notably, the first run after a gelding operation.

He travelled promisingly for a long way in the mile handicap and seemed to give up the ghost a little when hampered with two furlongs to run – perhaps remembering he was a bit out of breath – finishing a commendable sixth, a step up from previous juvenile form.

The son of Mohaather will tighten up for the run, for all he was fit enough, and he has to be an exciting prospect for some big handicaps down the line.

Rock Opera (Richard Fahey)

31 May - York - William Hill Keep Your Raceday Positive Handicap

You wonder what Richard Fahey has got to do to get among the winners. It’s been a pretty middling April and May for the Malton handler, with just the ten victories from 159 runners, and his two-year-olds have been well behind this season too. However, he’s too good a trainer for this poor streak to last and once the winner bandwagon starts rolling, it’s one that you’d want to be on.

Rock Opera looks a winner in waiting. He was fit and well for this, one of the better ones in the paddock, and the addition of a first-time visor caused no ill effects behaviour-wise. In a race where it paid to be on or near the pace, Rock Opera did by far the best of those held up at the rear, running on strongly late to grab third, beaten two-and-a-quarter lengths. He’s on a mark he can do some damage off, and it’s surely a matter of time before he adds to Fahey’s tally for the season. Six furlongs in a strong-run event will see him home in front.

Jamaican Storm (Bryan Smart)

31 May - York - Reg Bond “Always And Forever” Handicap

There’s any number of horses you could take from this seven furlong handicap and I nearly went with Sweet Fantastic, who wouldn’t settle properly pre-race but still ran a cracker to be beaten a short-head, but in the end I went with Jamaican Storm, who I didn’t spot at the time but having watched a replay Sunday morning, is the one that goes in the notebook.

Described as “a giant of a horse, looks well for reappearance and nicely keen” in the paddock and despite a 50-1 price tag attached to him, he’s run a race full of promise for the season here. He looked a little outpaced mid-race, but nothing dreadful, and ran on under fairly tender handling in the final furlong, with David Nolan gearing down in the last half-furlong when a place was beyond him. A pleasing reappearance then; both pedigree and run style suggest another furlong won’t go amiss, and he’s the type to pop up at a juicy price somewhere this summer.

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