Timeform's Horses To Follow for the 2025/26 jumps season is out now. Read an extract from the book featuring Dan Barber's selection, Wolf Moon.
Wolf Moon’s novice campaign ended with a whimper when beating only one rival home on his handicap debut on the final day of the British jumps season at Sandown in April. However, the rangy Wolf Moon had previously laid some solid foundations and is expected to build on them when sent chasing.
Wolf Moon was an unconsidered 50/1 shot for a two-mile maiden hurdle at Huntingdon in January having finished unplaced on his only start in a point the previous May, but he belied those odds with a fine effort behind the odds-on favourite Palladium who had added some stardust to the card. German Derby winner Palladium, a €1.4 million purchase, looked set to clear right away on the turn for home having cruised into the lead before three out, but he was given a scare by Wolf Moon who was delivered with a challenge on the approach to the final flight and stuck to his task up the run-in without ever getting on terms.
He may have been a big price, but there didn’t appear any fluke about Wolf Moon’s performance, and he confirmed that positive impression when justifying favouritism in a similar event at Southwell a month later. Ridden more prominently than had been the case on his hurdling debut, Wolf Moon led approaching the second last and gradually asserted up the run-in to score by a length and a quarter. The steady pace masked Wolf Moon’s superiority, and it was the same story back at Huntingdon where he had to work hard to land the odds. The runner-up, winning Flat handicapper Galactic Charm, was much better suited by a test of speed around a sharp track, so it reflects well on Wolf Moon that he was good enough to get the narrow verdict following a protracted tussle.
He’s a half-brother to a speedy sort in Redemption Day, one of the highest-rated bumper performers of recent seasons, but Wolf Moon is a slower-maturing type than his sibling and will appreciate stiffer tests than those he was presented with in novice hurdles. Ben Pauling
Dan Barber says: “It doesn’t always follow that the most physically imposing types will prove significantly better chasers than hurdlers but it’s hard to avoid the belief that it will in the case of Wolf Moon, one of the best looking specimens seen in a paddock at a jumps track in 2024/25. For one, Wolf Moon didn’t look cumbersome or wooden during a progressive novice hurdling campaign that saw him handle brush obstacles at Southwell for the first of his two successes, while it’s worth noting his trainer has few peers when it comes to a youngster taking his form to another level for switching to the larger obstacles.”
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