Imperial Merlin

Trained by John and Sean Quinn at their Norton yard in North Yorkshire, Imperial Merlin first broke through in April 2022 at Sedgefield, and has since chalked up wins at tracks including Wetherby, where he last won in March this year—seven months ago now. That gap between victories is telling. Looking at his last six races, he has managed only a couple of placed efforts (4th and 3rd positions) and a single win, with blanks in between. The record reads 3-4-1–-5-4, which is the form of a horse struggling to find his rhythm, though his run a day ago suggests he is still being asked to do his job.

What is most striking about Imperial Merlin is the gulf between his overall record and his record in the top Class 3 races where he typically competes: he has won just one from 13 of those races, a bare 8% success rate. That tells you he has found his level, but only at the lower end of it. Ridden regularly by Henry Brooke, though not with much success—just one win from five rides together—Imperial Merlin looks like a horse for whom finding a winning race these days is becoming harder than it was. The Quinn yard has sent out 44 winners this season, which speaks to their competence, but even good trainers cannot win races on horses whose spark has begun to fade. At nine and with a career earnings profile that marks him as a solid middle-distance campaigner rather than a star, Imperial Merlin is very much a horse in the Indian summer of his racing life.