Flying Frontier

What makes Flying Frontier particularly interesting is what happens when it arrives at Sandown Park. In four visits to the Surrey track, it has won twice, including a Class 2 victory there as recently as last Saturday. Two wins from four races at one course is the kind of record that makes trainers pencil that venue in first when they are planning a season. Something about Sandown suits this horse — trainer James Tate has noted how much it seems to relish a rough, competitive race and how at home it looks there. That combination of track preference and competitive temperament is a useful thing to have in a horse.

Tate, who operates out of Newmarket and has sent out 50 winners already this season, is clearly thinking ambitiously about what comes next. He has spoken about a valuable race at Yarmouth as a possible stepping stone, with another Sandown target in August already on the radar. He has also floated the idea of running Flying Frontier over a slightly longer distance — which suggests he believes the horse has more to offer than it has already shown.

The ground matters too. On normal conditions, Flying Frontier has won 3 of its 6 races — exactly 50%, which is a remarkable conversion rate at any level of racing. Tate confirmed the horse likes fast, dry ground, and given that both its Sandown wins have come in the summer months, the pattern is easy enough to read. If the sun is out and the track is firm at Sandown in August, this horse is going to be very hard to ignore.