Spring Is Sprung

The most compelling chapter in this horse's story is the £100,000 Sunday Series bonus, a prize awarded for winning three specific races in a sequence. Paul Midgley's yard at Westow in North Yorkshire pulled it off, and it took some nerve to do so. After Spring Is Sprung won at Newmarket and Chelmsford, the team deliberately held the horse back — resisting the temptation to run again — in order to protect its handicap mark and wait for the right conditions. Fast, dry ground is what this horse wants, and they waited until the stars aligned at Haydock. It paid off. As owner John Blackburn put it afterwards, the trainer did a fantastic job, and jockey Jason Hart reported there was plenty left in the tank at the finish. Winning three competitive races in a row is hard enough. Winning a £100,000 bonus on top of that is genuinely remarkable.

Hart is clearly the jockey this horse runs best for. In 7 races together they have won 3 times — that is a win rate of 43%, which is exceptional. Compare that to the horse's overall record and it tells you the partnership works. Spring Is Sprung also has a particular fondness for Southwell, winning 2 of its 7 races there, including its first career win back in January 2022 and its most recent win in January 2026. A course specialist is a useful thing to have on your side.

The last 6 races have produced no wins — a run of form showing a second, a third, and several fourths — but the Haydock bonus puts that in context. This is a horse that has been placed in half those runs, is clearly still competitive, and raced just one day ago. Midgley's yard has sent out 39 winners this season alone. Spring Is Sprung looks like a horse with at least one more good day still to come.