My Boy Christy

What makes the recent form genuinely encouraging is the trend. Cast your eye back over his last six races and you see a horse that was finishing 20th, then 5th, then 7th — and has since reeled off three consecutive top-three finishes. That kind of improvement, race by race, is exactly what a trainer wants to see from a six-year-old still developing his craft. The question now is whether he can convert one of those near-misses into a win.

My Boy Christy runs for Ewan Whillans, a trainer based in Hawick in the Scottish Borders. Whillans is having a productive season — 28 winners sent out already — and is clearly a man who knows how to get a horse to improve over time. The fact that My Boy Christy raced just yesterday and is still active suggests the team see plenty more to come and aren't afraid to keep him busy. With that upward curve in form and a yard firing on all cylinders, his first win might not be far away.