Zabriskie Point

His two wins came in the summer and autumn of 2023 — first at Leicester in May, then at Thirsk in September — and the Thirsk win is worth examining closely. Jockey William Buick, speaking after the race, was candid about what he had seen: the ground that day was testing and wet, and Buick's read was that Zabriskie Point put up with conditions rather than thriving in them. That honest assessment from one of the best jockeys in the world points toward something useful — that on faster, dry ground, there may be more to come from this horse than the record currently shows.

What complicates the picture is where he has been asked to compete. In four attempts at Class 2 level — among the top races in Britain — he has not won once. That is not a disgrace. Class 2 races attract serious horses, and simply getting into those fields says something about the regard his trainer Adrian McGuinness has for him. McGuinness, based at Lusk in County Dublin and operating at a sharp pace this season with 39 winners already on the board, has previously noted that Zabriskie Point handled a Group 3 at Newmarket without embarrassing himself as a young horse — a detail that explains why his team has kept pitching him at quality fields.

Over shorter distances — between five and six and a half furlongs — he has won 1 of 5 races, a 20% win rate that is meaningfully better than his overall record suggests. That is the kind of specificity that makes a difference when plotting a path back to the winner's enclosure. He raced just yesterday, so he is firmly in the mix right now. The question is whether McGuinness can find a combination of fast ground and a suitable distance that brings out the best of a horse who, on his day, has shown he belongs at a decent level.