Duke Of Oxford

The Kempton Park story is the headline. Five wins from 10 races at that venue is a 50% win rate — flip a coin, and Duke Of Oxford is as likely to win as not. That kind of dominance at one track is unusual and suggests something about the surface, the shape of the course, or simply that he has found a home. His best trips are the longer ones — between a mile and six furlongs and two miles — where he has won 6 of his 10 races at those distances. That is a 60% win rate. In short, get him in the right place over the right distance, and he is very hard to beat.

His most recent form underlines the point. He won back-to-back races at the top of the Class 2 level in late 2025 before adding another at Newcastle in January 2026. Before that, there were a few difficult outings — finishing 12th and 13th suggests things were not quite clicking — but jockey Hector Crouch, who knows him better than anyone after 8 rides together, said after Newcastle that he was "in the form of his life" and that trainer Michael Bell had been giving him time between runs to keep him right. Bell's Newmarket yard has sent out 45 winners this season, so the horse is in capable hands.

Now, after a break of just under four months, the target is the Northumberland Plate at Newcastle — a prestigious race he finished third in last year. Bell has been direct about his ambitions: he thinks Duke Of Oxford is "fully entitled to be one of the market principals" if he arrives in his best form. He clearly loves Newcastle, has a track record at the top level, and is trained by someone who understands exactly how to manage him. For a horse that Crouch described, with obvious affection, as one that has had fragile moments in the past, the careful handling appears to be paying off handsomely.