Lion City

Where Lion City does show genuine promise is over longer distances. In races run over two miles or more, the record reads one win from four attempts — that's a 25% win rate, which means winning 1 in every 4 races at that trip. For context, that is a genuinely solid number, and it suggests the horse comes alive when asked to stay. The problem is that this profile hasn't translated into consistent results elsewhere, which points to a horse that is quite particular about its conditions.

Trained by Clare Ellam, whose yard has sent out two winners so far this season, Lion City raced 27 days ago and remains in active training. Ellam is working with limited firepower this season, so getting Lion City placed — let alone winning — matters. The challenge now is finding the right opportunity to give this horse a realistic shot at repeating that Sedgefield performance, which at this point is 18 months in the rear-view mirror. Horses can go long stretches between wins, but the longer that gap grows, the more you start to wonder whether the stars simply aligned perfectly that day in September 2024. The next race will tell us something worth knowing.