Five To Follow on the Flat
With the 2026 Flat campaign up and running now in earnest, here are five horses who might be worth following as we move into the teeth of the season.
Black Caviar Gold (Paddy Twomey)
Black Caviar Gold progressed nicely as a juvenile last season, she won her maiden at Cork in early September on soft ground, and she followed up by putting up the best performance of her career to date in running out an impressive winner of the Group 3 Weld Park Stakes at The Curragh later that month, also on soft ground.
She was well beaten on her return this season in the Group 3 Guineas Trial at Leopardstown, but that wasn’t her true running, she came under a ride a long way out, and she came home without her left hind shoe. Also, the winer of that race, True Love, went on to win the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket last Sunday.
Black Caviar Gold ran again last Monday, in the Group 3 Athasi Stakes at The Curragh, and she took a nice step forward from her seasonal return in finishing second, just three parts of a length behind the winner Kensington Lane. Paddy Twomey’s filly should come forward again from that run, and she will be of interest wherever she goes next. It appears as if she is equally adept over seven furlongs and a mile and, while her best two runs last season were in soft conditions, she proved on Monday that she can also operate on better ground.
Convergent (Karl Burke)
Only just beaten in the German Derby in Hamburg last July, Convergent did remarkably well to win the Group 3 CMG Group Stakes at Leopardstown on Irish Champions’ Weekend last September, given how keen he was through the early stages of the race. And he took a nice step forward from that when he just got up to win a Group 2 race at Longchamp the following month.
Karl Burke’s horse started off this term nicely when he won the Group 3 John Porter Stakes at Newbury last month. He did well to win there too, he didn’t have a lot of racing room on the inside as they raced to the furlong marker. From a prominent position, he had to go back in order to go forward, he had to drop back to sixth of the six runners and move to his right in order to get racing room. When he did though, he picked up smartly and he went to the line strongly, getting home by a half a length in the end from Newbury specialist Al Aasy, to whom he was conceding 5lb.
The Newtown Anner Stud’s colt hasn’t won a Group 1 race yet, but he holds an entry in the Coronation Cup at Epsom on Derby weekend, and he will be of interest if he takes his chance in that. He has pace and class and a turn of foot, and he stays a mile and a half well. He could be a player in some of the top 12-furlong races this season.
Hawk Mountain (Aidan O’Brien)
Aidan O’Brien had a really good week in Chester this week, as he usually does at the May meeting. He had representatives in five races, and he won all five, including the two Chester Derby trials, the Chester Vase and the Dee Stakes, with Benvenuto Cellini and Constitution River respectively, who are now fist and second favourites for the Epsom Derby in some lists.
Their stable companion Hawk Mountain is further down the Epsom Derby ante post list, but that is no doubt influenced by the fact that there is every chance that he will instead contest the French Derby, the Prix du Jockey Club.
The Wootton Bassett colt should be a player though in whichever classic he contests. A gutsy winner of the Group 1 Futurity Trophy on heavy ground at Doncaster last October, when he led home a Ballydoyle 1-2-3, he got this season off to a nice start when he made just about all the running to win to Group 3 Prix de Guiche at Chantilly last Monday on better ground, thereby becoming the first foreign-trained winner of that race.
He proved that day that he could operate at Chantilly, and he should be a big player in the Prix du Jockey Club if he goes back to Chantilly for that race next month. Also, Aidan O’Brien won the Jockey Club in 2021 with St Mark’s Basilica, who went on to win the Eclipse and the Irish Champion Stakes later that season, so it might be worthwhile following Hawk Mountain for a little while.
Jancis (Willie McCreery)
Jancis put up a smart performance in winning the Group 2 Dahlia Stakes at Newmarket last Sunday.
The fast pace and the fast ground suited her well that day. She travelled well in behind runners and she showed a potent turn of foot to hit the front inside the final furlong, before going away to win impressively.
Unraced as a juvenile, Willie McCreery’s filly burst onto the scene at Leopardstown as a three-year-old, and she ran some fine races in defeat last season, including in the Listed Valiant Stakes at Ascot in July, when she went down by just a half a length to Cheshire Dancer in a four-way go to the line. She handled the round mile at Ascot well that day, and she will be of interest if she goes back to Ascot for the Duke of Cambridge Stakes at the Royal meeting, which is also run on the round mile these days.
Saddadd (Roger Varian)
Progressive in handicaps last season as a three-year-old, and winner of the London Gold Cup at Newbury, which is often a good pointer to the future, Saddadd took the step up into Group company in his stride when he won the Group 3 Gordon Richards Stakes at Sandown two weeks ago on his debut this season.
Last of the five runners early on that day, he made good progress toward the leaders on the outside in the home straight, he hit the front at the furlong marker and he cleared away to win impressively.
That was just the seventh run of his life, and just his fifth on turf, so he has lots of potential for continued progression. He holds entries in the Tattersalls Gold Cup at The Curragh and in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot and in the Eclipse. He could be a Group 1 winner in waiting over 10 furlongs. Trainer Roger Varian suggested that the Eclipse could be a legitimate target for him, and that makes sense, back over the Gordon Richards course and distance in early July.
© The Sunday Times, 10th May 2026
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