Dragon Spin

The breakthrough came at Nottingham on 9th May 2026 — just this week — and it ended a run of frustration that will have tested the patience of Steph Hollinshead's yard in Upper Longdon, Staffordshire. Hollinshead has sent out 7 winners this season, so this one arrives with real momentum behind the operation. What makes the Nottingham win particularly worth noting is where Dragon Spin had been struggling most: in Class 5 races, the most accessible level of competition, it had gone 0 from 4 without a win. Finding the winner's enclosure now, in what appears to be a step up in quality of form, suggests the horse may simply have needed time and the right occasion to click.

The regular partnership with jockey Dougie Costello tells its own story. The pair have raced together five times without winning, a record that looks bleak in isolation but reframes itself when you consider how consistently Dragon Spin has been placing — it's a horse that's been running well without reward rather than running badly. The recent form reads 1-3-2-2-4-6 going back six races, and that sequence tells you everything: a horse trending upward, peaking at exactly the right moment, with a win at the end of the sequence rather than buried in the middle of it.

At three years old and with just eight races under its belt, Dragon Spin is still finding its feet. The career record to date is modest, but horses that finish placed as often as this one has, and then finally break through, often find that the first win is the hardest. Whether Nottingham turns out to be a one-off or the start of something is the interesting question — and with the yard in form and the horse clearly in good shape having raced just yesterday, there's every reason to keep watching.