Urchin

Urchin is trained by K R Burke at Coverham in North Yorkshire, and that matters. Burke's yard has sent out 140 winners already this season, which is the kind of output that marks a stable firing on all cylinders. When a horse comes from a yard producing winners at that volume, it tends to be well-prepared and well-placed — Burke has a reputation for knowing where to run his horses and when they're ready. Urchin, with its tidy record and recent activity, looks like exactly the sort of young horse a top yard builds a season around.

The form reads 3-1-2 going back through the last three runs, which means Urchin won the most recent outing six weeks ago and has been competitive either side of it. Racing just yesterday, this is a horse right in the thick of its season with plenty still to prove — and on the evidence so far, it's proving it well.