Hold The Press

Trained by J. R. Jenkins at Royston in Hertfordshire, Hold The Press has proved a trier rather than a natural talent — the kind of horse that hangs around the track for seasons, earning his keep through places and the occasional surprise victory. He competes almost exclusively in Class 6 races, the lower rungs of British racing, where one win in twenty-three attempts tells you he is beatable most days. His recent form has been erratic: a seventh-place finish just yesterday, then a run of results — eleventh, tenth, seventh, fourth, and seventh again — that shows what you get with a horse of modest ability. Yet that fourth-place finish three runs back, combined with this week's return to the winner's circle at Lingfield, suggests the old gelding still has something left.

What really matters to Hold The Press is the ground underfoot and the distance. On normal conditions — not soft, not firm — he has won two of sixteen races (12%), which is twice his overall record. Ask him to run over seven furlongs to a mile and those same proportions hold: two wins from seventeen attempts. Combine the two and send him to Lingfield on a standard ground day, and you have a horse worth watching. Jenkins' yard has been modest this season with just six winners, so each one counts.