Beachcomber

What makes Beachcomber genuinely interesting is how particular he is about conditions. He's openly admitted by his trainers, Jonjo and A.J. O'Neill, to be a horse who goes right-handed — meaning courses that run clockwise suit him far better than the more common anticlockwise direction. Kempton Park is a right-handed track, and the team have singled it out as somewhere he genuinely thrives. His win there last Christmas came with blinkers on — a piece of headgear designed to sharpen a horse's focus — and joint-trainer A.J. O'Neill was clear afterwards that the combination of the equipment, a good jumping rhythm, and the right-handed track unlocked something in him. His Class 2 win at Huntingdon back in January 2024 fits the same pattern: another right-handed course, and one where he'd won before.

The flip side is that when things go wrong, they can go wrong quickly. A recent comeback run at Ascot — a left-handed track — saw him clip the first fence out of Swinley Bottom and never really recover. His trainer was philosophical about it, noting simply that he's better than that showing suggested. A subsequent run at the Punchestown festival in Ireland offered some encouragement.

Beachcomber is trained by the Jonjo and A.J. O'Neill yard, a Cheltenham-based operation that has sent out 52 winners this season — a genuinely productive run of form. His most regular jockey is Jonjo O'Neill Jr, who has partnered him 13 times for one win together, a win rate of around 8%, or roughly 1 in 13. That's a modest return, but the partnership clearly has the benefit of familiarity.

With the team openly eyeing a three-mile race at Kempton in the near future — and possibly the same race he won there last Christmas — the ingredients look to be lining up. Whether Beachcomber can put it all together again may come down to whether that right-handed track, a good jumping day, and those blinkers all click at once.