Just Keep Flying

The recent form tells an interesting story on its own. Reading the last six runs from oldest to most recent — 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 3 — you can see a horse that won and then found things harder afterwards, sliding back through the placings without quite recapturing that peak. That's not unusual after a step up in class, and the fact that it keeps finishing in the frame rather than trailing off entirely suggests there's still ability here. Four places from six races means it has been competitive in all but one outing of its career so far.

Behind the horse is a yard that knows what it's doing. Mrs John Harrington trains out of Moone in Co Kildare and has sent out 58 winners already this season — that's a stable in serious form, and horses in serious form tend to come from yards that manage them well. Having an operation of that calibre in your corner matters, particularly when a horse needs patient handling after a big result.

Just Keep Flying raced as recently as yesterday, so this is very much a horse in the thick of its season. Whether it can rediscover the form that produced that Goodwood win remains the question worth watching. One top-level win at 4 years old, trained by a team firing on all cylinders — there's enough here to make the next run well worth following.