Blue Prince

The shape of his recent form tells an encouraging story. After a pair of seventh-place finishes in consecutive runs, he bounced back with consecutive top-3 finishes, most recently winning at Chester two months ago. That's the kind of pattern that suggests a horse who stays sound and keeps giving his all, even when things haven't gone his way. Trained by David Evans at Pandy in Monmouths—a yard that has sent out 37 winners this season—Blue Prince clearly operates within a stable operation that knows how to keep a horse competitive and ready to run.

His preferences are worth noting. On normal ground conditions, he's essentially a different animal: 3 wins from 10 races means he wins roughly 3 times in every 10 attempts on a good day surface. That's a striking difference compared to his overall record, and it points to a horse who doesn't enjoy extremes of going. Over the course of his races—his sweet spot is 5 furlongs to 6½ furlongs—he's won 3 of 14, another area where he can show what he's capable of. At the very top level (Class 2), he has been less prolific, with just 1 win from 14 attempts, suggesting he is most effective when dropped to a slightly more suitable grade. Blue Prince remains active and will run again soon, offering his the yard the kind of reliable, if unspectacular, form that keeps a horse in work and in the game season after season.