La Zoubida

What stands out most is how much she loves wet ground. In races run on soft or muddy going, she has won 2 from 3 — that's a 67% win rate, or two out of every three attempts. On a drying track at Haydock before Christmas, things went noticeably less well. Richards was candid about it: the ground was probably too fast for her, she got shuffled wide, and the race simply didn't go her way. He was quick to draw a line through that run entirely, pointing out that before Haydock she had been winning hurdle races at Sedgefield and Kelso, and before that a race on the flat. She hadn't really done anything wrong — Haydock was the exception, not the rule.

Her partnership with jockey Sean Quinlan is worth noting too. In 8 races together, they've won 3, a win rate of 38%, or roughly 2 in every 5 outings — a solid return that suggests the combination works. Her last win came at Kelso in December 2025, and with a race just yesterday she remains an active, busy horse.

What makes her story genuinely interesting, though, is what comes next. After her most recent run at Ayr, Richards was already looking ahead, telling Racing TV that she had carried a big penalty, found the ground a touch sticky underfoot, and had a run or two that had taken something out of her. His conclusion? She will make a lovely chaser, and that is where he expects to see the best of her. In racing terms, moving from hurdles to fences is often where a horse finds another gear entirely. If La Zoubida has been this competitive over hurdles, a switch to chasing — with soft ground beneath her feet — is a compelling prospect.