Kieran Packman / Timeform / 14 April 2010 / Leave a comment Free £25 Bet View Market

The experts at Timeform pick a pair of stand-out horses from their 'Fifty to follow' series

With the Craven meeting at Newmarket under our belts, the Flat racing merry-go-round starts spinning considerably faster this weekend with excellent action at Newbury. This precedes a typically action-packed May, a month kicked off by the Guineas meeting and closely followed by top-notch meetings at Chester and York.

The Timeform team's Horses To Follow for the Flat season was published recently and they've extracted a couple of names to take seriously in the big races over the new few weeks.

Workforce, Sir Michael Stoute
Timeform rating 106P
In this very publication's 2004 incarnation, one of our main hopes for the year ahead lay with a Sir Michael Stoute-trained Goodwood maiden winner by the name of North Light, who at the time was as big as 40/1 for the Derby. Not intended solely as a shameless retrospective plug, that titbit finds significance in the fact that a maiden winner from 2009's corresponding Goodwood card occupies a similar mantle this time around. Workforce, also handled by Stoute, created such a big impression in winning on his sole juvenile start at the West Sussex track that we see him as a sure thing to make his presence felt in good company in 2010.
Debutants from Freemason Lodge tend to benefit from the outing, and despite going off favourite Workforce seemed no different, racing in snatches having been dropped out from his wide draw but travelling powerfully within himself once getting cover, settling matters with the minimum fuss once presented on the inside as he stretched away by six lengths. Runner-up Oasis Dancer went on to cause a 66/1 shock in the Timeform Million, and despite the frailties of that race as a form guide the fact that he had been slammed so emphatically by Workforce can only act as another tick beside the name of the son of King's Best.
Workforce looks certain to have a fruitful 2010 regardless of how he fares in the Classics.


Mr Freddy, Richard Fahey
Timeform rating 79p
Even the most disciplined of professional gamblers will admit that there are certain horses who lull them in every time they run. Mr Freddy seems to have that power over us here at Timeform. Though his year-younger half-sister Bubber makes this 'Fifty', Mr Freddy hadn't shown so much as a juvenile and was considered rather too circumspect - despite recommendation by Mr Fahey himself - for inclusion in the 2009 edition, not that anyone missed out on a profit, as he won only once and even that was a dead-heat. However, there's so much more to Mr Freddy than his bare record, and we're willing to play the hunch that this is the year he takes off. Actually, it's more than a mere hunch.
First and foremost, he's big, very big in fact, the type to strengthen and improve with age, and the long break he's had between three and four years (drew stumps as early as August) could make the world of difference to him. Added to that, he has few miles on the clock, raced just nine times in his career, and, perhaps most significant of all, he's had only one try at a mile-and-a-half. That was his final start, at Doncaster, where he (yet again) shaped better than the result, no clear run when third to Red Cadeaux and Triumph Hurdle fancy Advisor. Two weeks before that, under testing conditions at Ripon, Mr Freddy ran really well to split subsequent winners Distant Memories (now listed class) and Moheeb, and he starts this campaign just 1 lb higher, making him favourably handicapped even without the anticipated progress. With time and size on his side, along with untapped stamina, not to mention one of the best trainers in the business to guide him, Mr Freddy should see his fan club swelling outside of Timeform House in the coming months.

The above pair are just two of the 50 to follow in the book, which are carefully chosen by members of Timeform's editorial staff, and these can then be further narrowed down, should you so wish, to the most promising ten.
As an insurance policy, throughout the year a supplementary edition, Timeform's Horses to Follow Extra, is published, which as well as features including big-race previews and Handicappers' Corner, also has a section to highlight which horses from the 'Fifty' are no longer of interest and should be cast aside, as well as helpful suggestions as to who should take their place.

Tags: Chester, Guineas Meeting, Mr Freddy, Newmarket, Richard Fahey, Sir Michael Stoute, Workforce, York