Don Occhetti

That single win came at Worcester in August 2024, now twenty months ago, and it remains the high point of his story. Worcester is a flat, galloping track that suits certain horses beautifully, and on that summer day Don Occhetti got everything right. The problem is he hasn't been able to repeat it since. Looking at his last six runs, there are three blank results either side of a third-place finish and a sixth, with that Worcester victory sitting at the end of the sequence — a reminder of what he can do when the stars align.

The class of race he typically enters tells you something important about where he sits in the pecking order. He competes mainly at Class 4, which is solidly mid-level racing — not the glamour events, but not the bottom rung either. The awkward truth is that in six races at that level, he has yet to win once. His one and only victory actually came when conditions or the competition fell in his favour in a way that hasn't been repeated.

Harry Skelton, one of the most respected jump jockeys in Britain, has ridden him five times and they've won together once — a 20% win rate, which works out to 1 win from those 5 rides. That's actually a decent ratio compared to Don Occhetti's overall record, which suggests Skelton gets something out of him. The horse is trained by William Young Jnr, based in Crossford in South Lanarkshire — a small yard that has sent out one winner this season, so Don Occhetti is very much the stable's live hope rather than one name in a long list of stars.

He raced just three days ago, so he is fit and active. For the casual observer, Don Occhetti is the kind of horse whose profile is defined by the one day everything clicked — and the ongoing question of whether it ever will again.