Midnight Strike

The four-year-old broke his duck at The Curragh in April 2024, and by all accounts it caught people off guard. His trainer at the time, Joseph O'Brien, admitted he thought Midnight Strike was a nice horse but didn't expect him to win the way he did — describing him as looking "very smart" and flagging him as a potential Royal Ascot type. That kind of endorsement, from one of Irish racing's sharpest minds, is not something trainers throw around lightly.

Since then, Midnight Strike has moved to the care of Jennie Candlish, based at Basford in Staffordshire — a yard that has sent out 64 winners already this season, which speaks to a busy, confident operation. The horse's most recent win came at Beverley just two weeks ago, and with a race just yesterday, he's clearly being kept active. His best performances have come over a mile and a bit — between 1m1f and 1m2f — where he's won 1 from 3 races (a 33% win rate), a noticeably better return than his overall record suggests. That distance range appears to bring out the best in him, and it's where his team will likely focus.

Dylan Browne McMonagle has been in the saddle for 7 of his 16 races, winning once together — a 14% win rate, which is actually slightly above Midnight Strike's career average. The partnership has clearly been given time to develop, and with the horse running as recently as yesterday, there's no sense of anyone hitting the brakes. Five places from 16 races also tells you this is a horse that competes — he's not disappearing out the back door. He just needs the planets to align.