I'm Dan Dare

The last six races read 12-1-2-1-5-2, and you need a moment to take that in. Two wins, two seconds, a third, and only one real disappointment in six outings. That is not the profile of a horse drifting through its career — that is a horse finding its feet and improving sharply. The first win came at Catterick Bridge on 30 May 2026, then a bigger one followed at Newcastle on 25 June. Two wins in less than a month, then back out the very next day after that Newcastle victory. Mark Walford's yard at Sheriff Hutton is not hanging about.

Walford is worth paying attention to here. His operation in North Yorkshire has sent out 35 winners already this season, which is a serious number — that is not a small yard getting lucky, that is a well-run stable with horses fit, ready, and placed in the right races. When a yard like that starts winning with a young horse at speed, it usually means they have spotted something — a distance, a track, a surface — that suits the horse, and they are making the most of it while the moment is there.

The one slight puzzle is the Class 5 record: nought from three at that level, which is the most modest grade of race in the professional calendar. Both wins have come at a step up from there, which is a curious inversion. Sometimes a horse simply needs a different kind of challenge to sharpen up, and the evidence here suggests I'm Dan Dare responds when asked a proper question. Racing yesterday and back in the winner's enclosure two weeks before that, this is a horse in the middle of something. Worth watching closely.