Wednesday night's Happy Valley card was quite short on black bookers, although the main Class One race is sure to throw forward plenty of future winners.
Some of the good four-year-olds in the race, the winner Secret Sham, third-placed Beauty Flame and unplaced Flame Hero, have already shown some good things this season that set them up for good careers.
Secret Sham has some real similarities to his owner mate Dan Excel in as far as his above average talent and a great attitude to racing. He is going to punch above his weight, and at some stage could win a very nice race just as Dan Excel did in the Champions Mile last year.
But the horse to follow in the immediate future must be Caspar Fownes-trained Lucky Double Eight.
The Fownes stable has been on the upgrade lately in general, and for Lucky Double Eight his neck second to Secret Sham was evidence that he has turned the corner and is ready to live up to some of the high hopes held for him when he was imported.
Lucky Double Eight has obviously given Fownes problems in training, but he has managed four starts in the past two and a half months now so he seems to be sound enough at present. He is eligible for Class Two and another Happy Valley assignment in that grade might see him break through for his first local success.
In the Class Five that opened the card, Wine Lovers advertised himself as a likely coming winner with his fourth placing, running on well in the final 200m.
Wine Lovers has drawn barrier eleven at both of his latest starts, making good ground behind Gracytom and now Novel Start after being taken back to the rear in the early stages.
Wine Lovers has had four runs now in the cellar grade and is showing enough to say that he can make an impact in the near future, and although he has come from well back, the gelding has shown in the past that he has some tactical speed and just needs a kinder draw before he can use it.
