Stormy Impact

The good news is that Stormy Impact appears to thrive on normal ground, where it has won 2 of 7 races — nearly a third of the time — suggesting that track conditions matter. The partnership with jockey Warren Fentiman has yielded decent returns as well: 2 wins from 7 rides together gives him a 29% win rate, well above the horse's overall average. That partnership alone hints that there may be something to build on. The yard, Richard & Peter Fahey's operation at Musley Bank in North Yorkshire, is a consistent source of winners — they have sent out 23 already this season — so Stormy Impact is in competent hands.

The puzzle is the recent form. Looking at the last six races, the best it has managed is a fourth place three runs back, and more often than not the results have been disappointing: a sixteenth, fifteenth, and another sixteenth in that stretch. Only at Class 2 level — precisely where this horse belongs — it has managed just 1 win from 7 attempts, a meagre 14% return. At four years old and clearly active (last raced just days ago), Stormy Impact is at a crossroads. The talent flickers to life now and then, but without another win soon, questions will start to mount about whether that Wolverhampton triumph was a genuine peak or simply one of those days when everything aligned.