Existent

At eight years old, Existent is a seasoned campaigner trained by Stuart Williams out of Newmarket, a yard that has sent out 67 winners already this season, so they clearly know what they are doing. The horse's best recent run came just four months ago, a win at Southwell in January 2026, and with a race logged only yesterday, Existent is very much still active and still in the mix. Recent form reads 5-14-4-8-1-10, which is a mixed picture — that win sandwiched between some quieter efforts — but the fact that a win came at all at this stage of a long career says something.

The clearest pattern in Existent's record is what happens on normal ground. On standard conditions, the horse has won 3 from 14 races — a 21% win rate, or roughly 1 in every 5. That is a completely different animal to the 1-in-20 figure you see across the whole career, and it tells you that when conditions are right, this horse is genuinely competitive. Over sprint distances — races under five furlongs, so flat-out speed contests — Existent has won 1 from 6, which works out at around 1 in 6, another solid return.

Marco Ghiani has ridden Existent more than anyone else, partnering the horse 17 times for a single win together. That long-running partnership, even without a spectacular win rate, speaks to a consistency in how the team around this horse operates. Stuart Williams keeps putting them out there, Ghiani keeps climbing aboard, and occasionally — like that February 2022 win at Wolverhampton or January's success at Southwell — it all clicks. For a general racing fan, Existent is the kind of horse that rewards patience: not flashy, not famous, but still capable of winning a decent race when everything lines up.