In A Hurry

What gives the profile some shape is the partnership with jockey Daniel Tudhope, who has been aboard for five of those ten races and was the man in the saddle for the Thirsk win. Together they've won 1 from 5 — a 20% win rate when paired up, which is double the horse's overall record and suggests the combination suits. Tudhope is one of the more reliable riders in northern racing, and the fact that David O'Meara keeps putting him on this horse says something about the level of confidence in the yard. O'Meara, based at Upper Helmsley in North Yorkshire, has been in exceptional form this season — 102 winners already — so this is not a small operation hoping for scraps. When a yard that busy keeps running a horse, it's usually because they believe there's a race to be won.

Most of In A Hurry's racing has come at Class 5 level, which is where the majority of horses in Britain spend their careers — not the big occasions, but solid, competitive everyday racing. The record there reads 1 win from 8 races, or 12%, which is modest but not discouraging given the horse has been placing regularly. The recent form tells an interesting story too: after back-to-back ninth-place finishes, the horse ran second, then third, then won — a clear upward curve that the current sequence of two poor runs has interrupted. Whether those latest eighths and ninths represent a blip or a slide is the question worth watching, especially given the horse raced just yesterday and is clearly being kept busy. David O'Meara's yards don't run horses for the sake of it at this time of year.