Great David

His first win came at Brighton in October 2024, and he then announced himself properly with a smooth victory at Nottingham in April 2025 on his seasonal return. What happened next is what makes Great David worth paying attention to. He followed that up with a third place in the Dee Stakes at Chester — a prestigious race at one of Britain's most distinctive tracks — despite being drawn in the worst possible position, widest of all from the outside stalls. Most horses would use that as an excuse. He didn't. Then came Royal Ascot, where he finished fifth in a Group 3 race — one of the top tier events in British racing — behind a horse called Trinity College. To reach that level from the Class 4 races where he started out (winning 2 of his 5 races at that level, a 40% win rate) is a genuine step up.

Tate is candid about one thing: Great David really struggled on the fast, dry ground at Ascot, and he clearly has a preference for easier conditions underfoot. Strip that away and the trainer believes he could be close to the best horse sired by Ribchester — top three at the very least, which is high praise when you consider how many horses that stallion has produced. The words used about him — tough, genuine, always improving — are the kind you want to hear about a horse still figuring out his ceiling.

His best form comes over seven furlongs to a mile, where he has won 1 of 3 races — a 33% win rate over those distances. Having raced just yesterday, he is clearly in an active campaign. The recent string of mid-field finishes — three fifths and a ninth — might look underwhelming at first glance, but context matters enormously here. Those runs came in significantly better races than anything he had tackled before. The horse who finished ninth at Royal Ascot is running in a different world to the one who won at Brighton six months earlier. That trajectory is the whole point with Great David.