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Northern racing horses to follow and eyecatchers

By Lewis Tomlinson

Horse Racing

Thu May 01, 2025 · 8M ago

The Northern Scene column will take a bit of a different shape now that the Flat season is fully up and running, taking more of a spotlight focus on Northern-trained eye-catchers to add to the My Stable tracker.

That being said, I can’t go without giving a mention to R. Mike and Ben Smith after Buy Some Time caused a 50/1 upset on the opening day of the Punchestown Festival, the third win in the space of a week for the Ayrshire yard. Unreal stuff.

FINANCER (Tim Easterby, Timeform 93)

One of the most notable – and perhaps unexpected - themes in the North in this early part of the season has been just how forward the Tim Easterby string is. Traditionally one of the slower yards to kick into gear, Easterby already has 11 winners on the board since the return of the turf and I’d be hopeful Financer will be adding that tally in the near future.

He was steadily progressive at 3 yrs, winning back-to-back races at Redcar and Haydock in the summer before landing a £15k pot from out of the weights at the Ayr Gold Cup meeting. There was plenty to like about his return at Ripon earlier this month as well, left on the back foot after a slow break but making gradual headway up the straight finish second behind race-fit winner Have Secret at a track where it’s often difficult to land a blow from rear.

Financer is yet to race beyond 10 furlongs, but shapes as if he’ll stay further and with all 3 of his wins to date coming on good-to-firm ground, should be winning more decent races in the North over the summer.

TROJAN SOLDIER (Jedd O’Keeffe, TF 75p)

Handicapping was always likely to be Trojan Soldier’s game and he caught the eye on his first outing in such company at Beverley earlier in the month.

The son of Ulysses was sent off at triple-figure prices on all 3 juvenile outings and not given a particularly hard time on his return in a Newcastle novice. Upped to ten furlongs, Trojan Soldier was given a patient ride by P. J. McDonald, switched out at the 2f pole before doing his best work inside the final furlong to grab second late on behind fellow handicap newcomer Kokanee.

Trojan Soldier has been handed a 2 lb rise for that effort – meaning next time he’ll race from a mark of 69 – but I think that Beverley form should work out quite well and he’ll surely stay further still if asked to do so.

PABORUS (Ed Bethell, 116p)

Ed Bethell’s fledgling training career only goes from strength to strength. Having made the breakthrough at Group 1 level in 2023 with Regional’s Sprint Cup success, Bethell passed the £1million prize money marker for the first time last season, a campaign which also saw him land his first Royal Ascot win courtesy of Mickley.

Mickley would’ve appealed as a likely candidate to gain further Pattern race success for the yard had he not joined the list of recent Britannia winners exported to Hong Kong, but the stable may have a ready-made replacement for similar honours in the shape of Paborus.

Now, a Timeform rating of 116p – to contextualise, fellow four-year-old Metropolitan, who won the Poulains last season before being placed in the St James Palace and Jacques Le Marois, is rated 117 - may look rather lofty for a horse for whose 4 career successes have come in novices at Redcar and Carlisle, a Southwell handicap and a conditions event at Thirsk, but the manner of those latter two victories could barely have been any more impressive.

Paborus wasn’t seen to best effect from an opening mark of 90 in sixteen-runner mile handicap at the Ebor Meeting last summer, always wider than ideal and probably a shade too keen to boot, but he quickly made a mockery that rating returned to 7f at Southwell back in October, tanking his way to the front approaching the final furlong before quickening clear of next-time-out winner Bobby Bennu, the margin at the line five lengths.

Connections opted to put Paborus away for the winter rather than hunt for black type on the all-weather and his return at Thirsk was again taking, once more travelling with real fluency before asserting his superiority over recent Kempton winner Mount Athos.

That Thirsk contest often proves a springboard to better thing – you have to go back to Vanbrugh in 2019 to find the last winner who didn’t score in Pattern company later in the season, so it would be far from fanciful to suggest it’ll be the newly-upgraded City Of York Stakes, rather than any handicaps, on his agenda at York this summer, so hard to put a ceiling on him it is at this stage.

DOTHAN (Ed Bethell, 84)

Another Bethell-trained runner to make his way into the Northern notebook in April was Dothan, who showed a smart turn of foot to make a successful handicap debut at Doncaster.

Steadily progressive in three outings last autumn, Dothan had been gelded over the winter and justified favouritism in a tidy-looking five furlong handicap on Town Moor last week.

Held up in rear, Dothan still had every rival to pass with a furlong and half left to run and still looked somewhat rough around the edges when initially asked for his effort, rather lugging to his left, but quickened up well once organised to collar last-time-out winner Acrisius in the dying strides.

He’s clearly always been relatively quite highly thought of - well backed on debut and then sent off odds-on next time - and a rise of just 2 lb to 77 surely underestimates both the strength of that Doncaster form (third-placed Alondra had also won her previous outing) and the untapped potential remaining in Dothan’s locker.

WATCH: Dothan wins by a short-head at Doncaster

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HAMMER THE HAMMER (Kevin Ryan, 106)

It’d be hard to call this lad a dark horse, given his two successes this spring have come by margins of five-and-a-half and six lengths, but Kevin Ryan’s Hammer The Hammer is clearly another three-year-old sprinter on a sharp upward curve.

He cost plenty at the breeze-ups last season – his price tag of €200,000 making him by some way the most expensive son of Coulsty bought in public – but perhaps wasn’t quite as forward as would’ve been expected, his form in a pair of starts on turf at 2 yrs no better than fair.

After pulling well clear with another unexposed sort on his return at Southwell, Hammer The Hammer then landed odds of 1/5 at the course there the following month before blowing apart what had looked an up-to-scratch 3-y-o there on Sunday – fastest out of the gates, last off the bridle and strongest at the finish, rare to see a race as competitive dominated in such fashion.

Not only was Hammer The Hammer’s most recent success visually impressive, it reads just as well on the clock, covering the six furlongs over half a second quicker than Prince of Pillo did when winning an equivalent event for older horses on the same card.

I’d expect his revised mark to be likely somewhere in the low-90s and he’ll surely take plenty of beating again if handed such a rise, a particularly exciting prospect if able to translate his improvement onto turf.

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