Annexation

The most interesting thing about Annexation is what happens when you put him over a mile and one to a mile and two furlongs. At that distance, he has won 3 of 11 races — just over 1 in every 4 — which is a completely different horse from the one you see grinding away at his typical Class 5 level, where he has managed only 1 win from 14 attempts. The trip unlocks something in him. His rider at Dundalk, Chris Hayes, put it simply after winning there: "I think this is his ideal trip and he could win another one up here." He was right — Annexation has now won twice from seven races at that Irish all-weather track, making him a genuine course specialist, the sort of horse whose name is worth circling whenever Dundalk comes up on the calendar.

His biggest moment came at Nottingham on 2 October 2025, when he landed a Class 2 race — one of the better prizes you can win in Britain. Trainer Tony Carroll described it as a great performance, and it was made slightly more dramatic by a late jockey change: the rider who had won on him just days earlier at Bath couldn't make the weight, so Jack Doughty stepped in and got the job done. Carroll noted that the Bath win had given Annexation a confidence boost, and he carried that into Nottingham in style.

Doughty is now the regular partner, having ridden him in 11 races together for that single victory — a win rate of around 1 in 11. The pair haven't clicked into a winning rhythm yet, but the Nottingham success shows what they're capable of on the right day.

Trained by Tony Carroll out of Cropthorne in Worcestershire, Annexation is part of a yard that has sent out 134 winners this season alone — so there is plenty of talent around him. He hasn't won in his last six races, and his recent finishes of 4-4-5-6-5-5 suggest he is knocking on the door without quite breaking through. But this is a horse who won a top-level prize less than seven months ago. The ability is still there.