Gibside

What makes Gibside genuinely interesting is the range he has shown. Most of his career has been spent at the bread-and-butter level — 20 of his 46 races have come at Class 4, winning 3 of them — but in May 2025 he stepped up and won a Class 2 race at Chester, one of the most prestigious and unusual tracks in Britain. That is a significant jump in class, and pulling it off at Chester, with its tight turns and unforgiving layout, is not something every horse can manage. It suggested there is more to Gibside than his day-to-day assignments might imply.

He also has a clear love of wet ground. In races run on soft or muddy going, he has won 2 from just 4 attempts — a 50% win rate that is remarkable by any measure. When the rain arrives, Gibside becomes a very different proposition. His record at Ripon tells a similar story of a horse who finds his best when conditions suit: 2 wins from 4 races there, where his first ever career victory came back in July 2022.

His most regular partner in the saddle is Duran Fentiman, who has ridden him in 20 races and won 3 of them together, a win rate of about 1 in 7. That is a solid working relationship built over a long stretch of time. Recent form has been patchy — his last six runs read 6-14-6-5-5-1, which means a win, then a string of mid-pack finishes, then a promising run into sixth most recently. He raced just one day ago, so he is firmly in the thick of his season. With the Chester win already banked in 2025 and wet weather always a possibility, there is every reason to keep an eye on Gibside.