Bridget Mary

Her current form is as good as it has ever been. Looking at her last six races, the most recent first, she has gone 5th, 1st, 2nd, a blank run, 3rd, and 2nd — a sequence that paints a picture of a horse bang in form and racing with confidence. She won at Ffos Las just six weeks ago, which makes her very much a horse to follow right now. She raced just yesterday, so she is as live and active as it gets.

Rebecca Curtis trains her from Newport in Pembrokeshire, and it is a yard that has had a productive season with 18 winners sent out. Curtis has spoken openly about Bridget Mary in the past, saying she has always worked like a nice horse at home but that the results have been a little frustrating — a polite way of saying the horse has not always matched her homework with her racecourse performances. The recent win at Ffos Las will have been especially pleasing for a Welsh-based trainer, given it is the local track and a course where the yard will always have supporters in the stands.

Most of Bridget Mary's racing has come in Class 5 company — the bread-and-butter level of the sport, where most working racehorses spend the bulk of their careers. She has won 2 of her 12 races at that level, roughly 1 in 6, which is a perfectly solid record. When Ben Jones has been in the saddle, the results have been notably sharper: he has ridden her to 2 wins from just 6 races together, winning 1 in every 3, which is a meaningful difference worth noticing.

She is not a horse chasing headlines or prize money at the top level, but Bridget Mary is a tough, consistent eight-year-old who rewards close attention. Right now, in the form of her life and with a trusted jockey to call on, she is exactly the kind of horse that keeps yards ticking and punters interested.