I've found myself getting the comment "We were just beginning to pick up at the end" from my jock and I'm not sure what it means. To me, it makes sense for it to mean trying a longer distance with my horse, but sometimes I'll also get comments like "the trip suited perfectly" or "the trip appeared to suit well"

So, should I try a longer trip? Or does this comment have more to do with pace and/or other factors?

Like you I used to think this comment meant try a longer distance. Factors to be taken into consideration on the horses distance are potential and stamina. Also is the horse running outwith its class.

The first thing I would try is to give the jockey some instructions. All my horses get a "challenge early" instruction.

If challenge early does not help then try a longer distance but with the challenge early. Next try dropping the horse into a lower class race.

Some horses will just never be winners. I have horses with 100% potential that can't win a race to save themselves and they get beat by horses with 90% potential. Depending on wheter you are in league mode or not, look at some of the hidden bars like cruising burst etc..

There are exceptions but generally I find a horses best distance is based on the stamina bar. All my league horses fall into the following categories on the flat. My NH horses are slightly different. For instance my best 4 mile NH horse who won a league race in week 1 is only 60% stamina.

10% potential are sprinters
20% potential are milers
40%-60% are middle distance
80% are St. Leger or 2 milers
100% are the long distance horses.

The article offers a unique perspective on the topic that I had not considered before.
coreball