The recent form tells its own story. After that January win, Northern Empire ran eighth at Newcastle — a result that looks bad on paper, but his trainer Ed Walker has been candid about why. Speaking on a stable tour in April, Walker admitted he got the tactics wrong by entering the horse over six furlongs against a stronger group of sprinters, and that Northern Empire was simply outpaced from a long way out. It was the wrong race at the wrong distance, and Walker was direct about it. The plan now is to step back up to seven furlongs or a mile, which is the kind of honest, sensible horsemanship that tends to produce results.
Walker trains out of Upper Lambourn in Berkshire, and this has been a strong season for his yard — 80 winners and counting, which is a serious number and marks this out as one of the more productive operations in British racing right now. Having a trainer who is both self-critical and in form is about as good a situation as a young horse can be in.
Northern Empire raced just yesterday, so he is clearly being kept active. With a Lingfield win on his record, a trainer who has diagnosed exactly what went wrong in his worst run, and a switch back to a more suitable distance in the offing, this is a horse whose best days look to be ahead of him rather than behind.
| Course | Races | Results | Last visited | Win rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lingfield Park Sharp |
2 | 1 win, 1 second | 17 Jan | 50% |
| Newcastle Galloping |
1 | 1 other | 3 Apr | 0% |
| Kempton Park Galloping |
1 | 1 other | 1 Dec | 0% |
| Ascot Galloping |
1 | 1 other | 8 May | 0% |