Marten Julian’s Weekly Roundup 30 March 2026

There have been some notable gambles landed in the last couple of weeks.

I have tried to forewarn my subscribers of the early signals in my Daily Bulletin, even though we’re all aware that it does not take much to move a horse’s price in the early markets.

Last Thursday at Chelmsford there were strong market moves on three horses – Moscow Power, Caragio and Engross – from 12/1, 7/1 and 4/1 respectively down to 6/4, 3/1 and 6/4 by 10.00pm on Wednesday evening, with the momentum maintained up until race time. Their eventual SPs were 10/11, 2/1 and 6/5.

Moscow Power and Engross won, while Caragio looked unfortunate to finish second. Of the three, the most impressive was Moscow Power, both in the execution of the gamble and in the race itself.

It’s quite unusual to see a strong market move in a race of this type. Moscow Power ran in a 6f restricted maiden and he was up against unexposed talent from some useful yards. The son of Sergei Prokofiev had shaped well in two novice events, at Haydock and Nottingham, last summer. This was his third run, when it would have not been unreasonable to assume that he was aiming for a handicap mark.

Looking back, the gelding’s form held up very well, with the first two home in both of his previous races now rated in the mid-90s and above. At Haydock he finished third behind Maximized, who is now rated 98, and Time To Turn, a subsequent Listed and Group 3 winner who is now rated 107.

Mick Appleby is a top-class trainer and I have no doubt that Moscow Power will prove himself a black type performer.

On Sunday at Downpatrick we had a more traditional gamble, this time on a horse named Cozone, who had been beaten 12 times since his last victory in October, 2024, most recently by 65 lengths, 24 lengths, 15 and a half lengths, 23 lengths, 45 lengths, 38 lengths and 28 lengths. As a result his mark had dropped from 109 to 90 in that time. He was supported from 16/1 to 7/2 and came away to win effortlessly by seven and a half lengths.

In his case the victory was harder to anticipate even though Cozone had won twice previously over hurdles off 106 and 109. He had, though, had a year off and apparently had gone well in a schooling race.

At a higher level, there was strong market support for the Lincoln winner Urban Lion, who had been 25/1 earlier in the week but he was the subject of steady interest in the build-up to the race from 14/1 to his SP of 9/1.

This had been the plan all winter and he provided the first leg of my ambitious attempt at the Spring Double.

I was intrigued by the extraordinary extent of the marketing that went into Aidan O’Brien’s presentation of his top prospects at the Curragh on Sunday. This, following his Press Open Day a couple of weeks earlier, suggests that the Coolmore operation is keen to be seen as a corporate brand, perhaps keen to move away from the personalities who fund the operation.

As for Albert Einstein, as I wrote here a fortnight ago the colt hasn’t yet shown in public the speed that he apparently displays at home. Having said that, he is a very imposing horse who, to my eyes, looked distinctly burly beforehand. I suspect that he will turn out to be okay, although there is a suspicion that he may be tripless.

I saw a potential top-class performer running in France on Sunday. I’ll be writing about him for our Racehorse Database later today.
Bye for now

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