FARREN Glory is fairly lightly raced for a nine-year-old, and his run in the Red Mills Trial last Saturday suggests there is plenty of life still left in him, writes Page Fuller. The only condition being, he needs to brush up on his jumping.

It has always been the biggest barrier to his success. Of his nine races for which we have jumping data, he has forfeited ground to his rivals in six of them. Ironically, the only hurdle race he didn’t forfeit lengths jumping was when he fell in contention for the Formby Hurdle in 2023.

In the Red Mills Hurdle, he was only beaten a length and a half in total, but forfeited two and a half lengths jumping to Workahead and more than four lengths to Storm Heart through his erratic jumping.

The race also developed into a bit of a sprint, and he lacked the tactical speed of the first two home.

He approached the penultimate hurdle at 31.87 mph, but the first two home were travelling faster than 32 mph, and even at the last he was once again the slowest of the three.

He has never approached a hurdle faster than 32.5mph in our database, which suggests that maybe he just lacks the tactical speed for two miles.

Stepped up in trip in the spring to two and a half miles may take the pressure off him, helping both his jumping, and take the emphasis away from speed.

The biggest caveat being that his jumping needs to improve. But he has recorded a Jump Index of 6.9 on both starts over hurdles this year, and surely that leaves plenty of room for it.