JPR One

The Exeter connection is particularly striking. JPR One has won 2 of just 3 races there, making it almost a home track despite the yard being based down the road in Dorset. That is where the journey started — a first career win at Exeter in November 2021 — and it was Exeter again where JPR One took a Class 1 in November 2024. Some horses simply suit a track, and this is one of them.

At the very top level, competing mainly in Class 1 races, the record reads 2 wins from 11 — roughly 1 in every 5 or 6 attempts. That is not embarrassing at that standard; it actually reflects a horse that belongs in those races even if it does not dominate them. Trainer Joe Tizzard has been candid about where JPR One sits in the pecking order — not a Champion Chase horse, he admits — but the trajectory this season has been upward. After a strong run at Cheltenham where the horse led enthusiastically before just failing to see it out, Tizzard is eyeing Aintree and Punchestown, both flatter tracks that should suit a horse who loves to bowl along at the front. He described it as JPR One's best ever season.

Jockey Brendan Powell has been central to all of it, riding in 21 of the 24 career races and picking up 7 wins — a win rate of 33%, or roughly 1 in every 3 rides together. That kind of long-running partnership matters; Powell knows exactly how this horse wants to race and Tizzard is now leaning into it, actively considering front-running tactics after seeing what JPR One did when given his head. The yard has sent out 58 winners this season, so this is a team in form, and JPR One — still racing just one day ago — is very much part of that momentum.