Travel Agent

The other key to unlocking Travel Agent is the ground. On normal conditions, this horse has won 3 of its 6 races — half of them. That is a remarkable conversion rate that tells you the team knows exactly when to aim it at a race. Put those two factors together — Lingfield on good ground — and you have a horse that becomes a very different proposition to the one that has drawn a blank in 8 attempts at Class 5 level, which is where it has spent most of its career. Zero wins from eight races at that level is a curiosity, given what it achieves elsewhere, and suggests Travel Agent may simply be at its best when conditions align rather than on sheer class alone.

Recent form reads 4-2-1-1-2-4 going back through the last six races, which is the kind of sequence that shows a horse in good nick without being exceptional. Two wins in the last six races is solid, and the back-to-back wins sitting in the middle of that sequence — the most recent of which came at Lingfield just five weeks ago — confirm this is a horse currently doing things right. Trained by Adam Kirby from a yard in Kirtling, near Newmarket, the operation has sent out 6 winners this season, so Travel Agent is part of a set-up that knows how to get horses to the line in front. Raced just one day ago, it is very much an active, working racehorse right now — not one coasting towards retirement. At four years old, with a clear preference for one track and one type of ground, the formula for getting the best out of Travel Agent looks well and truly discovered.