High Opinion

Smart is having a productive season, with 18 winners already sent out from Sutton Bank, and High Opinion remains an active part of those plans, having raced as recently as yesterday. The recent form figures of 5-5-6-11-7-9 aren't pretty — nothing in that sequence suggests a win is just around the corner — but the horse keeps showing up and keeps finishing in the mid-pack rather than tailing off entirely, which is something.

The most intriguing thread in High Opinion's record is its relationship with Nottingham. Two wins from seven races there gives it a 28% win rate at the track — that's more than double its overall average, and in racing terms that kind of affinity with a particular course is genuinely meaningful. Horses can take to a track for all sorts of reasons: the shape of the bends, the way the ground drains, the camber of the straight. Whatever the reason, Nottingham is where High Opinion first won, back in October 2022, and it has returned to winning ways there since. If you were going to pick one day to watch this horse, a trip to Nottingham would be it.

Regular jockey Andrew Breslin has been aboard for 12 of their races together but has managed just 1 win — 8%, or roughly 1 in 12 — which mirrors the horse's overall form rather than improving on it. High Opinion largely competes at Class 5 level, which is the bread-and-butter tier of British racing, and has won twice from 16 attempts there. Nothing about this horse screams star quality, but at 40 races into a career it knows what it's doing, and when the conditions click at the right track, it has shown it can get the job done.