Space Bear

Trained by Michael Appleby out of Oakham in Rutland, Space Bear operates within a yard that has hit real form this season — 71 winners and counting, which puts Appleby firmly among the busier and more productive trainers around. The regular partner in the saddle is Luke Morris, who has ridden Space Bear in five of its 13 races and won on it once, a 20% win rate together that actually beats the horse's overall average. That kind of familiarity between horse and jockey often matters more than the numbers suggest.

The first win came at Wolverhampton in July 2025, but the more recent victory — and arguably the more interesting one — was at Great Yarmouth in April 2026, just two months ago. Space Bear is clearly not a flash-in-the-pan type; it has won at two different tracks and kept placing consistently in between. The distance sweet spot appears to be seven furlongs to a mile, where it has won 1 from 3 races — a 33% win rate that is meaningfully better than its record elsewhere. When the trip is right, this horse becomes a genuine threat.

Recent form reads 3-2-9-3-1-5 from most recent backwards, and that ninth-place finish stands out as the one blip in an otherwise tidy sequence. Everything either side of it has been a top-three finish or better. Space Bear raced just yesterday, so it is very much in the thick of things right now — a horse in work, in form, and running at Class 5 level where, frankly, it has every right to be competitive. With the yards momentum behind it and a jockey who knows it well, the next win probably isn't far away.