Financer

Tim Easterby trains Financer out of his yard in Great Habton, North Yorkshire, and Easterby is very much in form right now — his team has sent out 126 winners this season alone, which is a serious number. When Easterby first assessed this horse back in the spring of 2024, he liked what he saw: a middle-distance type by Cracksman, the sort of horse built to travel and stay. That read proved correct. Financer does its best work over a mile and three furlongs to a mile and four, winning all 3 of its races at that range from 16 attempts — a win rate of 19%, or roughly 1 in every 5 races at the trip. On normal ground, those numbers get even better: 2 wins from just 7 races, which is 29%, or nearly 1 in 3.

The relationship with jockey David Allan has been long but modest. They have partnered up 11 times, winning once together — just 1 in 11. That single win, however, was the Ayr Class 2 — so when it mattered most, they delivered. The trouble is that Ayr win now sits 20 months in the past, and Financer has not won since. The last six races read 10-4-18-5-5-2: one near miss, plenty of mid-field finishes, and a couple of disappointing efforts scattered in. The horse raced just yesterday and is clearly still active and busy — this is not a yard that wraps things in cotton wool — but recapturing that September 2024 peak is the question Financer has not yet answered.