Tactical Plan

The first of them came at Chester on 14 September 2024, and it was no small occasion. Chester is one of British racing's most atmospheric venues, a tight, oval circuit where tactics matter enormously — and Tactical Plan, living up to its name, got it right when it counted. Better still, it was a Class 2 race, meaning one of the better races in the British calendar. A debut win at that level, at that track, is the sort of thing that makes a yard sit up and take notice. The second win followed at Goodwood in October 2024, confirming that the first was no fluke.

Since then, though, the wins have dried up. Tactical Plan has gone 20 months without finding the winner's enclosure, and its last six results — a second and a fourth tucked in among some forgettable finishes — suggest a horse that can threaten without quite delivering. Most of its career has been spent in Class 4 company, the bread-and-butter level of British racing, where it has won just 1 of 10 races at that grade. For a horse that has already beaten Class 2 fields, that is a slightly puzzling picture — perhaps the horse runs its best races when asked the biggest questions.

Tactical Plan is trained by Ed Dunlop at Newmarket, one of British racing's great headquarters, and Dunlop's yard has been in solid form this season with 36 winners sent out. The horse raced as recently as yesterday, so it is firmly in active campaigning mode. At four years old, there is still time to add to that career prize money and perhaps rediscover the form that made September 2024 such a memorable month. Whether Tactical Plan can put together another performance worthy of that Chester afternoon remains the interesting question.