The handicappers attempt to identify horses they believe could make their mark as three-year-olds in the forthcoming season.

Graeme Smith (BHA)

NIGHT RAIDER

(Karl Burke)

Steve Parkin and Karl Burke have a lot to look forward to this year with proven pattern performers Fallen Angel, Flight Plan and Dorothy Lawrence in their arsenal, but they’ll also be excited about the lesser-known Night Raider if his Southwell success in December is any guide. It was by no means a strong race but the time was respectable given how inefficiently it was run, and the most striking thing was how quickly he drew nine lengths clear in a sprint finish without turning a hair.

By Dark Angel, Night Raider is a half-brother to the Palace House winner Far Above and out of a 7f winner. That coupled with the speed he showed suggests he’s not guaranteed to stay the Guineas mile, but whatever his trip proves to be he looks exciting.

DEVOTED QUEEN

(Charlie Appleby)

Last year was a quiet one at the top level for Charlie Appleby’s two-year-olds with only one inclusion in the classification, but it’s hard to imagine there isn’t a host of talent bubbling under and Devoted Queen looked a potential pattern winner when scoring at Newmarket in October on her only start to date.

A half-sister to the Vertem Trophy runner-up One Ruler out of a Sun Chariot third, Devoted Queen was the paddock pick physically and needed only hand riding to draw away. The field was well strung out considering the modest gallop they’d gone, and she looked to have enough left in her at the line to suggest she can make her mark in significantly better company this spring.

KALEIDOSCOPE

(John and Thady Gosden)

Another impressive winner of a falsely run race, Kaleidoscope looks another exciting dark horse for 2024. She was always well placed close to the pace when justifying favouritism at Lingfield in early December by three lengths from her 78-rated stablemate Sea Ice, but her closing sectionals were fast and there was no sign of her stopping at the line.

Kaleidoscope is by Kingman out of a Cheveley Park winner, and she could be the type to test her credentials in something like the Nell Gwyn in the opening weeks of the season before hopefully going on to better things.

Mark Bird (IHRB)

PORTERS PLACE

(Paddy Twomey)

While One Look, Azada and Content are all fillies with considerable upside potential for 2024, I would put forward Porters Place, who showed an impressive turn of foot when landing the odds on her only start to date in a 7f Curragh maiden in October, as my filly to follow. She settled nicely on debut before quickening smartly for a four length success in a 16-runner field.

One of 10 individual two-year-old winners this season for the emerging Paddy Twomey stable, she is a filly out of Shreyas, a Group 3-winning half-sister to Group 1 winners Youmzain and Creachadoir, and has the potential to rate highly in 2024.

ILLINOIS

(Aidan O’Brien)

Aidan O’Brien continued to dominate the two-year-old scene in Ireland in 2023 and among the stable’s 40 individual two-year-old winners during the year were four from the penultimate crop of super-sire Galileo. This quartet included Illinois, who narrowly missed out on inclusion in the European Two-Year-Old Classification following a fine effort when a close third in the Group 1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud just 15 days after landing a nine-furlong Curragh maiden impressively on his debut.

Bred on the renowned Galileo-Danehill cross, he is a half-brother to Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Danedream and has the potential to rate very highly among the best middle-distance horses in 2024.