Fingal's Hill

The career really took shape once Thomas Dowson got the leg up. The pair have won 4 of their 5 races together — that is an extraordinary 80% win rate by any measure — and that kind of partnership is rare enough to be worth paying attention to. When you see Dowson booked, the horse is live. Trained by Peter Atkinson out of Yafforth in North Yorkshire, the yard has sent out 5 winners already this season, and Fingal's Hill has been central to the story.

Newcastle is where this horse looks most at home, winning 3 of his 7 races there — nearly 1 in every 2 visits. For a track that draws competitive fields, that record is the sort of thing that makes racegoers circle the card in advance. But the most telling recent form came elsewhere: a Class 2 win at Aintree in May 2025, one of the most famous racecourses in the world, followed by a win at Hexham in June — his most recent victory, just over eleven months ago. That Aintree result in particular is a marker. Big track, top-level race, delivered.

Ground conditions matter with this horse. On normal going he has won 4 of 7 races — more than half — which is a striking number. Get him on a dry, conventional surface and he is in his element. His last six runs read 7-2-2-–-2-1, meaning he has finished in the top two in four of those six races, with his only disappointing run sandwiched between good efforts on either side. He raced just yesterday, so the legs are turning and the form is current. At ten years old, some horses are winding down — Fingal's Hill is showing no sign of it.