Bold Endeavour

The overall record reads 4 wins and 11 places from 25 races, a win rate of roughly 1 in every 6 outings (16%), which tells you this is a horse that competes at a serious level without always getting the result. What makes that harder to achieve than it sounds is where Bold Endeavour has typically been asked to do it: Class 2 races, which sit just below the very top tier of British racing. At that level, he has gone 0 from 9 — but those nine runs have come against some very good animals, and the placing record suggests he has rarely been disgraced.

Henderson has been candid about what happened to Bold Endeavour a couple of seasons back. The horse was running so well in the top staying races that the handicapper kept his official rating high — essentially a penalty for being good — which made winning at that level almost impossible. He was caught in a trap of his own making: too talented to drop back, not quite able to beat the very best. Some time away from racing has helped, and Henderson is now pointing him back at hurdles rather than fences, which suits the horse's preferences. Jockey Nico de Boinville, who has partnered him in 8 of his 25 races and won on him twice (winning 1 in every 4 of those rides together), noted after his last win at Doncaster that Bold Endeavour really wants fast, dry ground to show his best — a useful thing to know when deciding when to run him next.

That Doncaster win came in January 2023, now 41 months ago, and his last six runs have produced no victories — a 14th and a 7th and a 3rd among them. He raced just yesterday, so this is very much a horse still in training and still competing. At 10, he is an old hand. But under Henderson, with the right ground and the right race, there may yet be one more good day in him.