Best Women

That one win came at Fakenham just days ago, on 4th May 2026, which makes this a profile written in the immediate aftermath of a victory. The recent form reads 1-2-8-3 going back through the last four races — in other words, a third, then a blip when finishing eighth, then a runner-up, and now a winner. The dip to eighth aside, this is a horse that keeps showing up near the front end of a race.

Best Women is trained by Alex Hales, whose yard is tucked away at Edgcote in Oxfordshire. Hales has had 12 winners on the board already this season, which suggests a stable in decent form and sending horses out ready to perform. Fakenham, where Best Women scored, is a small and quirky track in Norfolk — tight, turning, and very different from a big galloping circuit. Winning there often takes a horse that knows its job and settles into a rhythm, which fits the profile of a 7-year-old with experience behind it.

With a 25% win rate across four races — essentially winning one in every four times it has run — Best Women is not a horse that has needed dozens of chances to figure things out. Four races is a small sample, but the numbers so far tell a story of a horse that places reliably and has already tasted success. What happens next, and whether this win opens the door to tougher races, will be the interesting question.