Rocheval

Rocheval got off the mark at Aintree in November 2023 — not a bad place to announce yourself — and followed up at Carlisle a few months later in a way that caught the eye. What made Scudamore's praise so striking was the context: Rocheval made a mistake two fences from home at Carlisle and still won. Horses that can absorb an error and keep finding for their jockey tend to have something about them. Since then, though, injury niggles have slowed things down considerably, and the form figures of 4-4-6 from the last three completed runs suggest a horse that is competitive without quite finding its best.

The trainer Lucinda Russell and co-trainer Michael Scudamore have been doing well as a yard this season — 49 winners is a healthy total — and they believe the summer has made a real difference to Rocheval. Work on his back has, they say, unlocked a bit of improvement, and they feel he could be well placed to win in longer-distance hurdle races given where he sits in the weights. That kind of claim from a stable in form is worth taking seriously.

His most regular partner in the saddle is Patrick Wadge, who has ridden him to all three of his wins from 9 races together — winning 3 from 9 is a rate of roughly 1 in 3, which is a genuinely strong partnership record. And when Rocheval races at Class 4 level — one step below the top tier, essentially his home territory — he has won 3 from just 5 starts, a 60% record that is remarkable by any standard. If the back treatment has done what the team believe it has, those Class 4 races over a staying trip could be where Rocheval reminds everyone what he is capable of.