Mereside Madness

Trained by Scott Dixon out of Rolleston in Nottinghamshire — a yard that has already sent out 33 winners this season, which tells you this is a functioning, productive operation — Mereside Madness competes mostly at Class 5 level, the bread-and-butter tier of British racing where the competition is honest rather than elite. At that level it has won 3 of 15 races, or roughly 1 in 5, which is a solid return. It also handles normal ground particularly well: 3 wins from 13 races on a standard surface, compared to just 1 win from its remaining 16 races on anything else. If the ground is right, this horse becomes a different proposition.

The regular partnership with jockey Callum Rodriguez has produced 1 win from 6 races together — not a dazzling record on paper, but the pair clearly know each other well enough, and Rodriguez will have a strong sense of what this horse needs.

The honest question right now is form. Mereside Madness has not won in its last 6 races, its finishing positions in that run reading 15, a break, then 10, 8, 9, and 10 — consistently towards the back of the field. Its last win came at Thirsk in July 2025, now a full year ago. It raced just yesterday, so the team are clearly keeping it busy and looking for the right opportunity, but this is a horse waiting to find its feet again. When the stars align — Newcastle, normal ground, the right race — Mereside Madness has shown it can genuinely deliver. The wait for that moment to arrive again is the interesting question.