Mertoun

What makes Mertoun particularly interesting right now is the timing. It won for the first time at Windsor on 22 June 2026, then backed that up with another win at Carlisle just twelve days later on 4 July — and it raced again only yesterday. Look at the recent form figures and you can see the story clearly: the sequence reads 6-8-9 before suddenly flipping to 2-1-1. That is a horse that spent its early races finding its feet, then clicked into gear very quickly. Two wins from two once it got the hang of things is the kind of improvement that gets people paying attention.

The yard behind Mertoun is in fine shape to support that momentum. Jane Chapple-Hyam has sent out 24 winners from her Dalham base this season alone, which tells you this is a well-run operation with horses in good form — not a lucky strike. When a horse improves sharply and the trainer is firing on all cylinders at the same time, that combination tends to be worth following.

At just three years old and with only 6 races on the clock, Mertoun is still relatively unexplored. There is plenty of racing ahead, and the current trajectory — three places or better from the last three runs, including back-to-back wins — suggests a horse that has found its stride at exactly the right moment in the season.