Famous Bridge

At Haydock Park, Famous Bridge has won 3 of his 7 races there, including both a Class 1 and a Class 2, which are among the highest level of races run in Britain. Winning at that level once is an achievement. Doing it three times at the same course tells you something about a horse that genuinely loves the place. His most recent victory came there on 15 February 2025 — a Class 1 success that represents the peak of his career so far. Trainer Nicky Richards noted afterwards that the horse is "hard to beat when he gets in a battle", and that jockey Sean Quinlan was confident he'd win from the second-last fence. That's the kind of horse Famous Bridge is: he finds something extra when the pressure is on.

Quinlan is his regular partner, and the numbers back up why that partnership has stuck. Together they've won 4 of their 15 races — roughly 1 in every 4 — which mirrors the horse's overall win rate and suggests a genuine understanding between the two. Richards trains him out of his yard in Greystoke, Cumbria, a small northern operation that has nonetheless sent out 39 winners this season alone.

The honest part of the picture, though, is that Famous Bridge hasn't won in his last 6 races, and Richards has been candid about it. Speaking at the end of December, he described a recent run in the Tommy Whittle at Haydock as disappointing, and said the team are still working out what comes next — "everything's in the melting pot," as he put it. Two below-par runs this season have left a question mark. For a horse who ran well in the Ultima at Cheltenham last year and clearly has the ability to compete at the top level, the current form is a puzzle rather than a verdict.

What's clear is that Richards still believes in him. The Scottish National has been mentioned as a possibility, and Cheltenham remains on the radar. At ten years old, Famous Bridge isn't finished — he's just waiting for conditions and a track to fall right, ideally one beginning with the letter H.