Hourman

The horse runs for the Milnathort yard in Perth & Kinross, trained by the successful partnership of Lucinda Russell and Michael Scudamore. This is a stable that has already sent out 49 winners this season, so Hourman joins a yard clearly firing on all cylinders. What's interesting about this horse is that when he steps up to the more competitive Class 4 races—the kind where the best horses tend to run—he hasn't won at all, going zero from four. Hexham clearly suits him, and that breakthrough win there suggests he may be most effective at the tracks where conditions or company play to his strengths rather than against them. His overall record of one win and two places from six races reads as modest, but for a horse still finding his feet in the sport, a win this week suggests he's finally worked out what it takes.