Moonstone Boy

Jennie Candlish, who operates out of Basford in Staffordshire and has sent out 60 winners already this season, is unusually candid about what holds Moonstone Boy back: the weather. She has said plainly that the dry conditions put his season on hold, and that the autumn rain should pay dividends. She has her eye on Ayr as a target. That kind of trainer confidence, backed by a yard clearly in fine form, is worth paying attention to.

What Moonstone Boy does particularly well is sprint. Over the shortest distances — under five furlongs — he has won 1 from 3 races, a 33% win rate that stands well above his overall figures. Speed is his calling card, as jockey Paul Mulrennan noted after an early win, describing him as a horse with "a lot of speed." His record at Hamilton Park also stands out: 2 wins from 6 races there, meaning he has won a third of his visits to that course. For a horse with a modest overall record, that kind of course affinity is a genuine edge.

His most recent win came at Carlisle on 29 May 2025, and the six races since then have not produced another victory — finishing eighth, seventh, seventh, fourth, tenth, and fifth in that sequence. That is a lean run, but context matters here. If Candlish is right that firm, dry ground has been the problem, those results may tell us less about ability and more about conditions. He raced just yesterday, so he is bang in form and busy.

Regular jockey Andrew Mullen has ridden him 12 times for a single win together — roughly 1 in every 12 rides — which is modest. But Mullen clearly knows the horse well, and with wet ground forecast and a trainer pointing him toward Ayr, Moonstone Boy looks like exactly the kind of horse who could surprise people before the season is out.