G'Emmethegreenlite

The three-year-old is trained at Malton in North Yorkshire, where Spencer's yard has already sent out 13 winners this season. That's a yard in form, which matters when you're trying to read what comes next for a horse. G'Emmethegreenlite has raced four times, finishing fourth on two occasions and seventh and eleventh on the others — never quite threatening the places, but showing enough to keep people interested. He ran just yesterday, so he's firmly in the middle of his campaign.

Here's the thing Spencer is keen to explain: the horse was probably being run over the wrong distance. He looks like a sprinter — big, powerful, built for pace over five furlongs — but Spencer now believes that's actually a misleading picture. A recent run over six furlongs at Thirsk gave the team a clearer read, and the conclusion is that this horse actually wants seven furlongs, possibly a mile. That's a significant shift. Running a miler over five furlongs is a bit like asking a middle-distance runner to compete in the hundred metres — they might not embarrass themselves, but you're never going to see what they're truly capable of.

Spencer is now eyeing one of the nursery races at York, which would be a significant step up in terms of occasion and competition. He's also unusually bullish about where this horse ends up, describing him as having a big future and predicting he'll end up highly rated. Trainers don't tend to say things like that about horses they've quietly given up on. With