John Ingles explains Timeform’s Horses To Follow journey from print to digital, as the 2026-27 jumps edition goes online.
When I joined Timeform’s editorial team more than 30 years ago, one of my first jobs was to help write profiles for Horses To Follow. At the time, the Flat edition was being compiled and I was given a handful of once-raced two-year-olds to write about. Little did I know that I would still be involved with the publication more than three decades later.
Horses To Follow has, of course, been around much longer than that. The 1977/78 jumps edition was a 36-page pocket-sized booklet costing £1, with a paragraph or two on each of its 50 horses. Among those selected were that season’s Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Midnight Court and a young chaser called Aldaniti, who would of course go on to win the Grand National.
While the format has evolved considerably since those early black-and-white editions, the principle remains unchanged: the 50 are selected by Timeform’s analysts, who follow and assess every runner throughout the season and are therefore ideally placed to identify the horses worth following.
The move from print to digital takes Horses To Follow another step forward. Rather than being a snapshot of each horse at the start of the season, the new digital edition allows customers to follow their progress throughout the campaign, with a new racecard flag, automated alerts, updated reports and ratings, and a league table tracking their performance.
The familiar 50 carefully selected horses remain at the heart of the publication, including Irish-trained runners for the first time, alongside more detailed profiles of the top 10 and a range of additional features. (John Ingles)
Horses To Follow 2026-27, features:
- 50 carefully selected horses – the core Horses To Follow selection, chosen by Timeform’s analysts.
- HTF50 racecard flag (coming soon) – highlights when one of the 50 is entered to run.
- MyTimeform tracker – quickly add any of the 50 to your tracker and receive alerts when they are entered.
- Season-long ratings and reports – follow each horse's progress as the campaign develops with detailed Timeform reports.
- HTF50 league table (coming soon) – track profit and loss, wins-to-runs and Timeform ratings throughout the season.
- Irish-trained horses included – Irish prospects are incorporated into the main 50 for the first time.
- Top 10 profiles – 10 of the 50 horses receive more detailed treatment.
- Trainer interviews – interviews with the trainers of each of the top 10 horses.
- Trainer's own horse to follow – each top-10 trainer nominates another of their horses to follow for the season.
- Ante-post preview – access to Andrew Asquith’s ante-post selections for the Cheltenham Festival and Grand National.
- Easy navigation – quickly move between the 50 using the index.
- Notes tab – make and keep your own notes on the horses.
- Season-long access – follow the horses beyond the opening snapshot and see how their campaigns unfold.
- Timeform race passes customers – get Horses To Follow included in your subscription.
EXAMPLE: Below is an edited version of top 10 horse, Indannya, complete with trainer Q&A.
TOP 10: INDANNYA (Chester Williams)
Chester Williams enjoyed a remarkable first season, sending out five individual winners from just 10 horses, with his small team landing 11 races at a 26% strike-rate and earning more than £150,000. The highlight was Tenter Le Tout’s Grade 2 Finale Juvenile Hurdle success at Chepstow.
Indannya is among his most interesting prospects for the forthcoming campaign. A two-time hurdle winner last season, she shaped better than the bare result when eighth in Grade 2 company at Warwick. With a pedigree steeped in French steeplechasers and a physique likely to suit fences, she looks an obvious candidate for the mares’ novice chase programme, though Williams may initially persevere over hurdles as he explains below.
Chester Williams: Indannya Q&A
How did you assess last season?
“I thought she did very well. Often that four to five-year-old season with a horse in novice hurdles is tough for them. She did well to win at Warwick in what was a competitive race against older horses, and then again at Wincanton, over a trip short of her best. At Warwick in the Listed race she moved through it well, but then she had a bit of interference turning in at the wrong point of the race and that just completely finished her race.
“The Newbury race wasn’t long after Wincanton, and she had to go into the red there to win that day. When the going got tough at Newbury the tank was just empty unfortunately. I was delighted with her season overall, but it wasn’t a surprise as I trained her for her point-to-point so I knew she was pretty smart.”
How has she done over the summer?
“She is only five, but she has filled out and developed. I saw her everyday over the summer so it is hard to tell for me, but people that hadn’t seen her since March commented how she had developed. Because we have so many young horses you can forget that a five year old is still a young horse that is developing. She has definitely grown up and physically developed. I think she has gone from a girl into a woman now."
What sort of plan have you got for her this season?
“There is no doubt in my mind, with her pedigree, that she is a chaser. She is rated 116, and she was second favourite for the Grade Two handicap at Newbury off two pounds higher. If she has improved, she could be well handicapped and still have room for improvement over hurdles. I think we are going to have to be a little bit aware of the ground. Chasing is definitely the long term goal, and chasing was the plan this season, but that mark over hurdles looks tempting.
“If she did start over hurdles, and got beat, then she would go over fences. If she did win off her mark over hurdles then we can enter off the bottom of some good handicaps. Her sire Bathyrhon has had 11 chase winners in England, and they have improved an average of 13 lb when going over fences. She will almost certainly improve over fences. I think it will be based slightly on her work over the next month as that will tell us a lot more as to what we do."
What do you think her optimum conditions are?
“I don’t think she is too worried about the ground. She wants some cut in it, and even heavy ground would be fine for her. Two and a half miles is perfect for her. One mile seven furlongs around Wincanton on good to soft ground would not be her bag at all. She was at her limit from the word go that day, and the more I look at it shows me that she is a two and a half miler. To win that day, with a penalty, was impressive.”
The Top 10 Q&As available in Horses To Follow:
- Dan Skelton: Bossman Jack
- Jamie Snowden: Cameron de Fiacre
- Nicky Henderson: Crystal Island
- Rebecca Curtis: Doujadou
- Patrick Mullins: Even Tho
- Olly Murphy: Gee Force Flyer
- Chester Williams: Indannya
- Harry Derham: Lover Desbois
- Nicky Henderson: Roccontier
- Jamie Snowden: Senator
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