Stem

The horse got off to a patient start. His team held him back, giving him time to develop rather than rushing him onto the track, and when he finally ran at Newbury in September 2024, he won well — convincingly enough that everyone involved came away excited. Jockey Ryan Moore noted after the race that Stem would get a mile and beyond in time, which is exactly the kind of comment that points toward the big middle-distance races that matter most. Owner Johnny de la Hey described it as a genuine surprise how well Stem had worked in the lead-up, suggesting the horse had made a significant jump forward just before his debut.

Since that winning debut, Stem has run four more times without winning again — finishing second twice and third and ninth in his other two races. That sequence tells two stories at once. The places suggest he is competitive and consistent, but the ninth on his most recent outing, just yesterday, raises a question mark. He has won 1 from 5 races overall, a 20% win rate that looks reasonable on the surface, but winning one in five when all five were relatively early career races is not quite the dominant profile you would want to see from a horse being pointed at European classics. The gap since his last win is now 19 months, which is a long time for a horse whose the yard are aiming at the very top level.

Hannon's yard has sent out 115 winners this season alone, which gives a sense of the scale and quality of the operation behind Stem. Hannon specifically said he was patient with this horse when others might have rushed him, which suggests genuine belief in the long-term picture. The question now, after yesterday's poor run, is whether that picture is still intact.