I Am Max

The most telling moment came not from a win, but from a fall. I Am Max came down on his first attempt over fences at Wetherby, and rather than rush him back to prove a point, Thomson made a deliberate decision: park the fences for now, send him back over hurdles, and let the horse mature. It is the kind of patient thinking that separates good yards from great ones, and so far it appears to be working. Thomson's operation at Lambden in Berwickshire has sent out 18 winners already this season, so this is not a team short of confidence or ability.

What followed the Wetherby fall were two encouraging runs — second place at Kelso, second place at Haydock — that suggest I Am Max is rounding into something. The Haydock run left a sour taste, though. Jockey Ryan Mania felt he had been bumped badly enough to cost him the race, and the stewards agreed enough to caution the winning jockey, but stopped short of reversing the result. "There's been softer bumps that have been awarded a race," said Mania afterwards, with understandable frustration. Thomson was equally unimpressed. It is the sort of decision that lingers.

Mania has ridden I Am Max in 6 of his 16 races without getting him into the winner's enclosure, though the partnership clearly still has Thomson's confidence. The horse's last win came at Hexham in October 2025, around six months ago, and his recent sequence of 8-7-2-5-5 shows a horse who competes without always threatening at the sharp end — though that Haydock second is a reminder that placing is not always the full story.

The plan now is a step up to three miles over hurdles, on soft or muddy ground where Thomson believes he genuinely thrives. That combination — a longer trip, a testing surface, and a horse growing into himself — is exactly the kind of scenario where overlooked horses suddenly look a lot more dangerous than their record suggests.