Abduction

What makes Abduction worth watching is his preference for normal ground conditions. On standard, fair-weather tracks, he wins roughly one in every four or five races—nearly double his overall rate. That is a significant edge, and it explains why Jim Goldie's yard at Uplawmoor keeps running him. Goldie, who has sent out 88 winners this season alone, clearly sees something in this horse worth nurturing. The trainer has noted that Abduction's recent runs, though without a win, showed real ability—beaten only lengths at Doncaster and running encouragingly at Musselburgh before that. For a horse who needs an honest, front-running pace to show his best, slower, stop-start races have worked against him. Paul Mulrennan, his regular jockey, has won on him twice from 16 rides together, a partnership that has not yet quite clicked into gear. At Class 4 level—where Abduction competes most often—he wins roughly one in every five races, a respectable win rate that suggests he belongs at this level, even if consistency has become the problem.