IT doesn’t always take a Premier track to throw up a promising looking novice and I believe Kempton showed up a horse that is likely to go under the radar on Friday, writes Page Fuller.

We aren’t expecting him to be a Class 1 horse, but the horse Storm Free, chased home in the 16.35 Novice Stakes, holds some solid form and the data suggests he will improve again for this experience.

Storm Free was slower than the winner, Aviation Time, out of the stalls and into stride, which immediately put him on the back foot. He took 2.95 seconds to reach 20mph in comparison to Aviation Time’s 2.36 seconds and was already 0.88 seconds behind by the end of the first furlong.

Once he had got his legs together, Storm Free started to travel very sweetly through the race, but Aviation Time was dictating fractions to suit himself on the front end. What was impressive turning in, however, was the runner up’s turn of foot and how he managed to sustain that to the line.

He was the only horse to break 40mph in the race, reaching a Top Speed of 40.69mph in the penultimate furlong. He was also the only horse to clock three sub-12 second furlongs in the last three furlongs, but unfortunately he had too much ground to make up after his slow start and failed to close the gap in time.

This was a big step forward from this youngster and, even if he won’t be a horse for the very top level, he definitely showed enough to think he’ll be winning a race like this in no time.