Gold Emery

What makes Gold Emery a more interesting case than the bare numbers suggest is what trainer Donald McCain has said about him. McCain's yard in Cholmondeley, Cheshire, has sent out 55 winners this season — a busy, successful operation — and McCain believes this horse is well placed in the weights right now. The key, according to the trainer, is finding him the right conditions: he loves Haydock, and he goes well on heavy, wet and muddy ground. That combination of a specific track and specific conditions might sound like a narrow window, but for a horse like this, finding that window is everything.

Regular jockey Theo Gillard has ridden Gold Emery in 10 of his races together, and they are yet to win as a partnership, which tells its own story. But the horse has been tried in better company above his usual Class 4 level — the sort of races that attract much stronger horses — and McCain says he ran well in them, which is worth noting. It suggests there is genuine ability there, even if the winning form has dried up.

At ten, Gold Emery is not a young horse with years of opportunity ahead. But he raced just yesterday and is clearly still out there competing, still being targeted at the right races in the right conditions. If Haydock comes up heavy this winter, this is exactly the kind of horse his trainer will have circled on the calendar.