Alphonse Le Grande

Over 36 races, Alphonse Le Grande has won 6 times and finished in the places on 10 other occasions — a win rate of roughly 1 in every 6 races, or about 17%. That is a solid enough record, but the detail that makes it genuinely interesting is where those wins have come. Three of them were Class 2 races — one of the top tiers in Britain — at Chester, Newcastle, and Newmarket, all within the space of five months in 2024. For a horse that typically competes at a lower level, winning at that grade once would be an achievement. Doing it three times in the same year, at three different tracks, says something real about this horse's ability to rise to a challenge.

The Newmarket win on 12 October 2024 was the most recent, and it remains the last time Alphonse Le Grande has visited the winner's enclosure — 19 months ago now. The last six runs have read 5-8-6-7-13-12, which tells you the form has dipped sharply. That is worth acknowledging honestly: this is not a horse in the form of its life right now.

What it does have, though, are some clear strengths worth watching. On normal ground, it wins roughly 3 from every 10 races — a 30% win rate that is genuinely impressive compared to its overall record. At Dundalk, it has won 2 from 5 visits, making it something of a course specialist there. And at a mile and one to a mile and two furlongs, it has clicked into gear before, winning 1 from just 4 attempts at that trip. Oddly, at the lower level it usually competes at — Class 5 — it has yet to win from 7 attempts, which suggests this is a horse that actually performs better when the standard goes up rather than down.

Alphonse Le Grande raced just yesterday and remains very much active. A horse that has beaten some of the best in three top-level races deserves respect, even if the current run of results demands patience.