Hello Sweety

Stuart Edmunds puts it plainly: she has two speeds — standing still and flat out. At home she tries everyone's patience, and it took a wind operation plus a rethink on how she is ridden to unlock what she was capable of. The jockey who has figured her out best is Charlie Hammond, who happens to be Edmunds' son-in-law. Together they have won 3 of their 9 races — 1 in every 3, which is a genuinely impressive ratio — though Edmunds notes that the daughter is not exactly relaxed watching him aboard her. Some horses are scary to ride. Hello Sweety is apparently scary to watch.

The key to everything is Fakenham. She has won 3 of her 5 races there, which is the kind of course record that makes you sit up. For context, most horses who travel regularly to the same track might nick one or two wins; winning 3 from 5 means she is not just comfortable there, she is dominant. Edmunds is blunt about why: "she likes to do things her way and this track is perfect for her." She also does her best work over longer trips — 2 miles or more — winning 3 of her 8 races at that distance, a rate of 38%, which comfortably outstrips anything she has managed at shorter trips. Her most recent win came at Fakenham just three weeks ago, and she raced again only yesterday, so this is a horse very much in the thick of a campaign.

The challenge now is that Hello Sweety has earned a rating of 102, which means she will step up in class and face better horses than the Class 5 company she has mostly competed in. Edmunds has his eye on a race at Stratford, another tight track, and you suspect that is very deliberate. "Good luck to anybody trying," he says of those who want to take her on there — which, from a trainer talking about his own horse, is about as confident as it gets.