Run To Freedom

The numbers across a 23-race career show 4 wins and 8 places, which works out at winning roughly 1 in every 6 races. That sounds modest until you consider where it has been competing: 18 of those 23 races have come at Class 1 level, and winning 2 of those 18 — about 1 in every 9 — is a meaningful achievement when the opposition includes some of the best horses in the country. This is not a horse that has been padding its record against weaker rivals. It has spent its whole career at the sharp end.

The honest part of the picture is that Run To Freedom has not won in its last 6 races, and that last victory at Salisbury came 35 months ago — nearly three years back. Recent form reads 12-10-3-8-4-11, which shows flickers of competitiveness without the finishing kick it once had. The horse is now seven years old and returning from a break of around five months, which adds another layer of uncertainty. Horses can come back from a long absence sharper than ever, or they can take a run or two to find their rhythm again.

Trainer Henry Candy, whose yard at Kingston Warren in Oxfordshire has sent out 9 winners this season, has clearly kept faith with the horse by continuing to pitch it at the top level. Jockey Trevor Whelan has partnered Run To Freedom nine times and won once together — that is 1 from 9, or just over 1 in 9 — a steady but unspectacular partnership. What makes this horse worth watching on its return is simple: it has already shown it can win the biggest races on the calendar. Whether it still has that ability after a long absence is the question every race fan will want answered.