Beryl's Girl

Eve Johnson Houghton, who trains Beryl's Girl at her Blewbury yard in Oxfordshire, has sent out 42 winners this season and knows how to develop improving horses. The real encouraging sign is Beryl's Girl's performance at her favoured distance. Over races between one mile one furlong and one mile two furlongs, she has won one of six attempts—a rate of roughly one win in every six—which is significantly better than her overall record and hints at a distance where she may yet prove more competitive. Her only victory came at Brighton, and the pair's two-month gap since that win suggests the team has been patient about bringing her back to a race they feel suits her. In her last six outings, she has finished sixth, sixth, sixth, first, fourth, and sixth, showing the inconsistency you often see in a young horse still maturing. That first-place result two months ago remains her high point, but the fact that she returned to racing just a day ago means Eve Johnson Houghton's team remains actively campaigning her, looking for another opportunity at the right track and the right distance. At three years old, Beryl's Girl is still young enough to make real progress.