Honour Your Dreams

The recent form tells a familiar story of the journeyman racehorse: a run of near misses and mid-field finishes without a breakthrough. In its last six races, Honour Your Dreams has finished in the top three three times (coming 2nd twice) but not crossed the line first, which explains why the gap since that Lingfield victory stretches back so far. When the horse does win, conditions matter. It has recorded two wins from thirteen races on fast, dry ground, and two from twelve on slightly soft going—a respectable win rate of around one in six or one in seven in both cases. Put the horse on wet or muddy ground and the record collapses entirely. The horse also shows promise over shorter distances, having won one of its three races at sprint lengths (under five furlongs), a rate of one in three that stands out against its otherwise modest overall record.

Jockey Alistair Rawlinson, who has ridden Honour Your Dreams most often, has managed just one win from seven races together, suggesting no particular magic between horse and rider. Yet the fact that Attwater keeps sending the horse out suggests there is something useful left in the tank. Honour Your Dreams is the kind of horse that makes for a steady day at a smaller racecourse—reliable enough to attract backers on the right day, honest enough to earn its keep, and old enough that every race feels like it might be its last great effort.