Juan Les Pins

The most striking detail in his record is what happens when the ground dries out. On fast, dry ground, Juan Les Pins has won 4 of his 10 races — that is a 40% win rate, which is extraordinary. Most good racehorses win somewhere between 1 in 5 and 1 in 8 of their races over a career. Winning nearly half of them in one specific condition tells you this horse is a completely different animal when the sun has been out. His trainer Michael Appleby's Oakham yard has sent out 79 winners this season alone, so he knows a thing or two about placing horses to their strengths.

What makes Juan Les Pins particularly interesting right now is his current form. In his last six races he has finished second, third, first, second, first, second — barely a bad run among them. He won at Thirsk just four weeks ago, and raced again only yesterday. That kind of activity at nine years old, still competing and still winning, says a lot about how well the horse has been managed. Appleby has spoken about how the horse was bought out of a claiming race at Redcar back in the summer of 2022 — the owner spotted something others had missed — and the improvement since has been rapid. He arrived on an official rating of 72 and climbed to 93, even running a very smart race when finishing third in the Ayr Gold Cup, one of the most competitive sprint races of the entire season.

The one puzzle in his record is at Class 2 level — one of the top tiers in British racing — where he has raced 17 times without a win. He clearly belongs in that company, getting close time and again, but has not yet broken through at that level. With dry ground in his favour and a trainer who believes the ceiling may not have been reached yet, that blank might not stay blank for long.