Kaleido

The yard itself is in fine form. O'Meara has sent out 101 winners already this season, which puts him among the busier and more productive trainers in the north of England — a useful sign that Kaleido is being trained by someone who clearly knows how to get horses ready to win races. The horse's most regular partner in the saddle is Oisin Murphy, one of the best jockeys in Britain, and together they have won 1 from 5 races — a 20% win rate, which is actually a decent return and well above Kaleido's overall average. When Murphy is booked, it is worth paying attention.

Distance matters with this horse. At seven furlongs to a mile, Kaleido has won 1 from just 3 races, a rate of 1 in 3, which is sharp by any measure. That is where it seems most comfortable — a trip that suits horses with a touch of pace who can sustain it over a proper distance without getting found out in a sprint or grinding over too far.

The concern is the gap since that Great Yarmouth win. It has been 12 months and 6 races without a victory, and recent form of 5-2-2-9-10-6 is a mixed picture — two good efforts with those back-to-back second places, but also a couple of disappointing runs further back. The fact that it raced just one day ago and is still active means the team clearly has plans for it. Whether Kaleido can rediscover what it showed at Great Yarmouth last July is the question worth watching.