Manila Scouse

He is trained by Tim Easterby at Great Habton in North Yorkshire, a yard that has sent out 126 winners this season alone — so Manila Scouse is competing in a busy, well-organised stable with plenty of ammunition behind it. Easterby has been candid about what it takes to get the best out of this horse: he had time off as a three-year-old when he simply couldn't be trained, but came back strongly. What he needs, his trainer will tell you, is wet or muddy ground — proper cut in the surface — and five furlongs, ideally with a stiff finish to aim at. Get those conditions wrong and you waste a journey. Get them right and you have a genuinely competitive racehorse.

His jockey David Allan knows him as well as anyone. They have teamed up 21 times, producing 3 wins — about 1 in every 7 rides together. Allan's fellow jockey Oliver Stammers, who has also partnered the horse, described him after a strong run at Haydock as "very game" and someone who "stuck on well in the last furlong." That quality — the willingness to keep fighting when a race gets hard — is not something you can train into a horse. It is either there or it isn't.

Manila Scouse's best moment came at Hamilton Park on 6 June 2024, winning a Class 2 race — proper top-level company. He has not won in his last six races, but his recent form figures of 3-7-4-4-16-7 suggest he is not disgracing himself. He raced just yesterday and is still very much active. With the right ground forecast on the horizon, this is a horse worth keeping an eye on.