Havana Touch

The overall record — 3 wins and 8 places from 26 races — tells you this is a horse that earns its keep. That is a 12% win rate, or roughly 1 win in every 8 races, which is respectable without being flashy. But the places matter too. Eight times it has finished close without winning, which means it is competitive far more often than the win tally alone suggests. John Butler's yard in Newmarket has sent out 27 winners this season, and Havana Touch is clearly part of a stable in good form.

What makes the horse genuinely interesting is its love of soft or muddy ground. In those conditions it has won 2 races from 9 — that's a 22% win rate, or roughly 1 in every 4 times out. For context, that is nearly twice its overall average, and it tells you that when the weather turns and the ground gets testing, Havana Touch becomes a different proposition. Its preferred trip of seven furlongs to a mile backs that up: 2 wins from 10 races at those distances, a 20% win rate, almost 1 in 5.

Recent form is genuinely encouraging. After a rough patch — finishing 9th, 8th, and 9th in three consecutive races — Havana Touch has bounced back sharply, with two runner-up finishes and a win at Kempton Park on 1st April, just four weeks ago. The horse raced again only yesterday, which shows the team are keeping it busy and in a good rhythm. That Kempton win is the most recent of three career victories, following the first at Chelmsford back in November 2023.

The one eyebrow-raiser remains that record at Class 5: 0 from 13. It suggests Havana Touch is either being protected from those races or simply finds them hard to win — perhaps because the smaller fields and slower pace do not suit. When conditions fall right, though, this is a horse in form and very much one to watch.