Baby Rover

Scott, who runs her yard out of Galashiels in the Scottish Borders, picked Baby Rover up partly because the stable already had her full brother, Curious Rover, and had done well with him. The idea was to replicate that. It has not been quite so straightforward. Baby Rover is, by Scott's own admission, a bit of a handful — a horse with opinions of her own who took a good number of races before she was willing to put everything together. That first win at Redcar felt like a breakthrough, and Scott believes the team have now worked out what makes her tick.

What is interesting is the suggestion that Baby Rover may already be running better than that winning day. Her most recent race — a second place finish at Ayr — came just yesterday, and Scott rates it as a stronger performance than the Redcar victory itself. That is an encouraging sign. Winning once from 23 races sounds like a hard story to tell, but if the horse is genuinely improving in her runs, the record may not capture what is actually happening on the track right now.

Jockey Joanna Mason has been the regular partner, riding her in 5 of those 23 races and landing the one win between them — a 20% win rate when they team up, which is a far better return than Baby Rover's overall record suggests. Scott has 17 winners on the board already this season, so this is clearly a yard that knows how to get horses to perform. The question now is whether Baby Rover, with another run under her belt and a trainer who finally feels she understands her, can turn that promising second into something more.