Hot To Trot: Owen taking the Michael

Flat: Owen Burrows

Owen Burrows is in his second season as a trainer and is already showing signs of improvement, the run to form percentage of his horses now operating at a much higher level than the average from last term. This is illustrated by the visualisation below, just one of the many innovative features available as part of Timeform’s new Jockey and Trainer Dashboards.

Given the strong backing from Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum, it’s no surprise that Burrows’ record has picked up from a slow start, but it’s interesting to note that his sprinters have a much higher run to form percentage than the average for that category (shown below).

However, as well as a sprinting win for Oriental Song (6f), Burrows’ recent success with horses over middle distances means that he is currently top of the in-form trainers table, in part due to wins for Azaly (1m), Quloob (1½m) and Laraaib (1¼m) over the past month. Looking ahead to his fortcoming entries, Fawaareq and Muntazah could yet make it to the Betfred Mile at Goodwood on Friday, but before then Burrows has some interesting two-year-olds debutant(e)s entered on Wednesday. The Havana Gold colt Tabdeed is scheduled to run at Leicester, while Kitaabaat heads to Sandown, however the most interesting is Naqaawa. She’s from a very successful family; four of her five siblings were Timeform rated 90+, including her full brother Mafaaheem. She heads to Goodwood as her trainer looks for a third two-year-old winner of the campaign.

Jumps: Charlie Longsdon

Charlie Longsdon didn’t have the greatest of seasons in 2016/17, with his older brigade of horses faring best, however the Oxfordshire-based Longsdon is a trainer who has fairly clear peaks and troughs of form (shown below).

As you can see, August, September and October are usually the periods when his horses hit form, so it’s encouraging that they are running as well as they are now. Longsdon has saddled three individual winners in July, with Bestwork winning twice in the space of five days to make it four winners for Longsdon this month. Bestwork isn’t entered in the coming days, however he is open to further improvement over fences, especially when getting his own way out in front. Kilfinichen Bay returns to Uttoxeter on Sunday, having disappointed at the track last time. He travelled better than most that day, however, and a repeat of either of his two previous starts – which included a win at Fontwell – would likely see him go close. Recent winner Burrows Lane has returned as good as ever this summer, but will need to improve his jumping at Newton Abbot on Monday if he is to bounce back from a Worcester defeat last time, while Jacobite Rising needs to take a step forward if he is to feature at the last-named track on Tuesday. He ran to just a poor level on his hurdling debut/first outing since leaving Lar Byrne earlier this month, but did leave the impression there could be better in the pipeline at some stage.

Under the Radar: Jim Goldie

Given he trains less than 30 miles from Ayr racecourse, it’s no surprise that Jim Goldie has a large number of runners at the track. As you can see from the statistics below, despite not turning a profit at Ayr, Goldie has a slightly higher win and place percentage at the course than his overall averages, and more of his horses run to form there. With Goodwood just around the corner, it’s worth noting that 71.43% of Goldie’s runners at that venue have run to form – his highest percentage at any UK racecourse.

Recent winners trained by Goldie include the 10-year-old Jonny Delta, as well as the five-year-old mares Cheeni and Sea of Green, and the visualisation below illustrates that not only does Goldie do well with his older horses, but that they tend to have higher pre-race ratings than the average.

Goldie has a raft of entries at Ayr on Monday, the most interesting of which appears to be Braes of Lochalsh, a dual C&D winner who ran well in defeat at the track last time and who remains on a feasible mark. Nicholas T, who ran at Ascot today, has several entries this week, including one at Goodwood, while similar comments apply to Tommy G who was in poor form when well held at Newmarket in mid-July but is probably on a fair mark at present. Given the statistic mentioned above, both would be of some interest at big prices if turning up at Goodwood later in the week.

Read Jamie Lynch’s detailed guide to the new Jockey & Trainer Dashboard