Inferno Sacree

Trained by Nigel Hawke, whose Devon yard has sent out 9 winners already this season, Inferno Sacree tends to compete at Class 4 level — the bread and butter of everyday racing, several rungs below the top tier. At that level the horse has won just 2 from 21 races, a 10% win rate that tells you it's competitive without being dominant across the board. What lifts the overall record is that Plumpton effect and a sharp preference for wet or muddy ground. On slightly soft conditions, Inferno Sacree has won 4 of 9 races — 44%, nearly winning every other time the ground rides soft. For context, most horses don't have that kind of split between what they like and what they merely tolerate.

The partnership with jockey Tom Buckley is worth noting too. In 14 races together they've won 4 times — that's winning more than 1 in every 4 rides, a noticeably better return than the horse's overall record suggests. When Buckley is in the saddle at a track Inferno Sacree knows well and the ground has a bit of give in it, the combination of factors is genuinely potent.

Recent form backs all of this up. In the last 6 races: a win, a second, a win, a win, then a gap, then another second. That's as consistent as it gets at this level — this horse is not fading with age. Having raced just yesterday and still clearly in form at eight years old, Inferno Sacree looks like exactly the kind of horse that keeps a small Devon yard ticking over: reliable, course-savvy, and at its absolute best when the rain has been down and the trip to Plumpton is on the cards.