Lud'or

His career began promisingly enough with a first win at Wetherby in February 2025, but the plot really thickened that November at Bangor-on-Dee, where he won a Class 2 race — one of the better races in Britain — in a manner that took everyone by surprise, including his own team. Symonds has spoken openly about how nobody expected him to be quite so dominant that day. That one performance cost Lud'or 13lb in the weights, a significant penalty that essentially means he now has to give a head start to almost every horse he faces. Plenty of horses crumble under that kind of reassessment. Lud'or responded by winning a Class 1 race — the top tier of British racing — at Haydock Park on Valentine's Day 2026. That is a serious step up, and he cleared it.

Win 3 of your last 6 races and you are in very good form. Win 3 from 9 overall — roughly 1 in every 3 — and you are operating at a level most horses never reach. What makes Lud'or particularly interesting is the upward curve of those wins: a decent track, then a top-level track, then the very best level. Symonds believes wet or muddy ground is the key — Lud'or's best performances have all come when conditions have been soft underfoot, and the trainer is in no hurry to experiment with drier tracks or longer distances while the ground is in his favour. There is talk of a two-and-a-half mile race at Newbury next, and Symonds thinks he could even handle three miles eventually, but for now the priority is catching the right conditions.

After a short break of around two months, the horse returns to a yard that has sent out 11 winners already this season. The question is whether a horse who has surprised everyone twice can do it a third time.