Aurigny Mill

Taunton is this horse's home. Three wins from six races there is a genuinely remarkable record — half the time Aurigny Mill turns up at Taunton, it wins. That's not luck; that's a horse that clearly suits the track. The most recent of those wins came just six weeks ago in a Class 2 race — one of the top tier events in British racing — which tells you this is a horse performing at a serious level right now. The first Taunton win came back in March 2023, so this is a relationship with the course that's been building for the best part of three years.

The conditions matter too. Put Aurigny Mill on wet, muddy ground and the numbers become almost startling — two wins from four races, meaning it's won half the time conditions have been at their most testing. Combine that with the fact that five of its six career wins have come over distances of two miles or more, at a rate of 42%, and a picture emerges of a horse that wants to grind it out over a long trip in difficult conditions. It doesn't want speed and sunshine — it wants a proper slog.

Trained by Robert Walford out of Okeford Fitzpaine in Dorset, Aurigny Mill sits within a yard that has sent out ten winners already this season, so this isn't a one-horse operation carrying a quiet campaign. The most regular jockey is Alan Johns, though interestingly Johns hasn't yet managed to get Aurigny Mill into the winner's enclosure across their six rides together — suggesting the horse may simply be performing at its best with someone else in the saddle on its biggest days.

Raced just eight days ago, Aurigny Mill is very much in the thick of it. At nine years old, this is a horse who has found its level and is making the most of it — a genuine course specialist, most dangerous when the rain comes down and the race is a marathon. The kind of horse, in short, that you'd fancy if you saw Taunton and soft ground listed next to its name on the card.