Spirit Of The Bay

The most striking thing about her is what happens when she gets the right trip. Over a mile and three to a mile and four furlongs, she has won 2 from 13 races — roughly 1 in every 6 — which is a completely different horse to the one who struggles at shorter distances. At those middle distances she becomes genuinely competitive, and John & Rhys Flint's yard, based in Kenfig Hill in south Wales, clearly know this is where she belongs. The Flints have sent out 7 winners already this season, so this is an active, functioning yard rather than one just making up the numbers.

Her recent form is actually encouraging. Read it from right to left — the last six runs go 2-1-3-7-5-9 — and you can see a horse who was bang in form before her break, finishing second and then winning at Chepstow in July 2025. The trainer has spoken warmly about a fourth-place effort at Kempton as one of her better performances, highlighting that she showed something in stronger company and that there's still ground to explore at a mile and a quarter. That's a trainer who believes there's a bit more to find, not one managing expectations downward.

She is now an 8-year-old returning from seven months off the track, which is the main question mark. A long break at this stage of a career can go either way, and her regular jockey William Cox has yet to win together in seven attempts, going 0 from 7. That partnership hasn't clicked yet. But the Chepstow win and the placed effort before it show this horse is capable of putting in a proper performance when the conditions are right and the distance suits. Whether the long layoff has blunted that edge is what her next race will tell us.