Summer Is Tomorrow

The key to Summer Is Tomorrow seems to be the trip. Over seven furlongs to a mile, the horse has won 2 of its 4 races — a 50% win rate at those distances that stands in sharp contrast to its record elsewhere. That is a genuinely striking number. Finding the right distance for a young horse is one of the more important puzzles a trainer has to solve, and Joseph Patrick O'Brien appears to have cracked it. O'Brien, based at Owning Hill in County Kilkenny, is having a powerful season — 154 winners already — and Summer Is Tomorrow is one of the reasons why.

The first win came at Down Royal in July, but the more recent success at Roscommon on 1 September tells a better story. Winning at two different tracks suggests this is not a horse that simply gets lucky on a circuit it knows well. The recent form figures read 4-16-1-2-1-5 going back through the last six races, which shows a horse that can be inconsistent — that 16th place in particular is an eyebrow-raiser — but also one that clearly knows how to win when everything clicks.

Racing just one day ago and still active, Summer Is Tomorrow is very much a work in progress. At three years old, there is every reason to think the best is still ahead. If O'Brien can keep targeting those seven-furlong to one-mile races on suitable ground, this horse looks capable of adding to its tally before the season is out.