Cave Hill

The first win came at Newcastle in December 2024, and the second at Hexham in May 2025. Neither of those is a glamorous venue, and that is entirely the point. Cave Hill is a Class 5 horse — the bread-and-butter level of British racing, where the competition is modest and races are there to be won rather than survived. At that level, it has won 2 from 17 races, or roughly 1 in every 8, which is a respectable enough record for a horse operating at the bottom end of the ladder. The challenge is that even at this level, Cave Hill has found winning difficult to repeat, and its last six results — a mix of thirds, mid-pack finishes, and a couple of also-rans — suggest it is currently in one of those quiet patches that horses and their teams simply have to work through.

The partnership with jockey Alan Doyle is the most encouraging thread to pull on. In 13 races together, they have won twice — a win rate of around 1 in 6, or 15% — which is meaningfully better than Cave Hill's overall record suggests it should manage. That points to a jockey who understands this horse, knows when to ask and when to wait.

Ian Duncan trains the yard out of Coylton in Ayrshire, and with nine winners on the board this season, it is a stable that is clearly in decent form. The question for Cave Hill is whether a return to somewhere like Hexham — the scene of its most recent win just over a year ago — might spark something. For now, having raced as recently as yesterday, the horse is clearly fit and active. It just needs the pieces to fall the right way again.