Finally Escaped

That breakthrough came just this week, at Nottingham on 17 July 2026, and the timing matters. Look at the recent form — fifth, sixth, sixth, fourth, then a second, then a win — and you can see a horse that has been quietly improving run by run. Those two sixth-place finishes earlier in the sequence might look discouraging at a glance, but the trend since then has been steadily upward. A second followed by a first is the kind of momentum every yard wants to see.

The key to Finally Escaped appears to be distance. Over a mile and three to a mile and four furlongs, the horse has won 1 from 3 races — 33%, or roughly 1 in every 3. That is a dramatically better return than the overall career record suggests, and it tells you that when the team pitches up at that trip, they fancy their chances. Get the distance wrong and you get the sixth-place finishes. Get it right and you get this week's winner.

The trainer, Roger Fell, operates out of Nawton in North Yorkshire, and his yard has sent out 25 winners already this season — a serious tally that suggests a stable in confident form. Finally Escaped has now contributed to that tally, and with the horse still only four and clearly improving, there is every reason to think this won't be the only time its name appears in the results column. The win came just a day ago, so the horse is bang in form and very much one to keep an eye on at the right distance.