Lunanova

Trained by Luke Dace out of a small yard in Billingshurst, West Sussex, Lunanova is a four-year-old with a career record of 3 wins and 5 places from 17 races — winning roughly 1 in every 6 overall. Dace has sent out 6 winners this season, so this is not a big operation, but it is a yard that clearly knows how to place a horse to its best advantage. Getting Lunanova to Brighton repeatedly looks like smart training rather than luck.

The horse also has a clear preference for normal ground conditions, winning 2 of its 5 races on a standard surface — a 40% win rate that stands out sharply against its overall numbers. Put Lunanova on its favourite track in its favourite conditions and you have something that wins two races out of every five. That is a genuinely useful piece of information.

The honest caveat is that recent form has been patchy. Lunanova has not won in its last six races, and the finishing positions — 9th, 5th, 9th, 6th, 10th, 7th reading back from most recent — suggest it has been running without threatening the front. The last win at Brighton came on 31 August 2025, which is now nine months ago. Most of its racing has come at Class 5 level, the bread-and-butter tier of British racing, where it has won just 1 from 8 — about 1 in every 8 races at that grade. It raced just yesterday, so it is clearly being kept busy.

The story of Lunanova is really a story about one track. Away from Brighton, it has not won at all. Back at Brighton, on good ground, it becomes a different animal entirely. Whether that magic returns is the question — but when the entries come out and Brighton is in the column, this is a horse worth a second look.