Wheels Of Fire

Hannon, who trains out of Herridge in Wiltshire and has sent out an impressive 118 winners already this season, was openly unimpressed when the handicapper responded to that Musselburgh victory by raising Wheels Of Fire's official rating by 8 pounds. His view is that the win came on wet, muddy ground that the horse handles particularly well — meaning the performance looked better on paper than it would have done in normal conditions. A penalty that steep, he argues, was an overreaction. The market appeared to agree: when the horse lined up at Newbury just last week, he was sent off at 14-1, which is the crowd's polite way of saying "we don't fancy him at this level." The race, by all accounts, confirmed the suspicion, and a seventh-place finish followed.

That leaves Wheels Of Fire in a slightly awkward spot. He's shown he can win — his career began with a first victory at Lingfield Park in August 2024 — but his record at Class 4 level, which is the standard tier he mostly competes at, reads just 1 win from 10 races. His most regular jockey, Sean Levey, has ridden him 8 times for that single win together. These are the stats of a horse who is competitive but not dominant at his current grade, and now his official mark has been pushed higher still.

Hannon has floated the idea of dropping him back to five furlongs to exploit what he describes as loads of speed. It's an interesting option — a horse with a big engine and a light-footed action over a shorter trip could find races at a different angle entirely. For now, Wheels Of Fire raced just yesterday and remains very much active. The question is whether the team can find the right race before the handicapper's arithmetic does any more damage.