Honved

What matters now is the return to racing. Honved hasn't competed for roughly ten months, a significant lay-off at an age when consistency and ring-craft matter. Ralph Beckett, the trainer at Kimpton in Hampshire, has a busy and successful yard — they've sent out 111 winners already this season — so there is clearly plenty of horsepower going through those stables. Whether Honved fits into that winning picture remains to be seen. The horse has tackled some of the lower-grade races available, competing three times at Class 5 level without success, so it will need to improve noticeably when it returns to action. A long break is a reset button for a young horse, for better or worse. The next run will tell you whether Honved has shaken off the rust or regressed further.