Make Me King

The career highlight so far is hard to argue with: a Class 1 victory at Pontefract on 27 July 2025. Class 1 races are the cream of British racing, and winning one marks a horse out as genuinely top-level. It's the kind of result that changes how a horse is talked about. Before that, Make Me King had already shown quality by winning a Class 2 at Newcastle in June 2024 — that was the first career win, and doing it at that level first time out suggests this was never going to be a horse who pottered around in minor events.

James Doyle has been the regular jockey, riding in 7 of the 12 races and winning 2 of them — that's a win rate of roughly 1 in every 3 and a half rides together, which is a strong partnership by any measure. When a top jockey keeps coming back to the same horse, it usually means he likes what he feels underneath him. Trainer Hamad Al Jehani has sent out 15 winners this season, so the yard is clearly in decent form heading into this campaign.

The recent form does need a little context. The last six runs read 5-3-8-4-1-3, which tells an interesting story. That 1 — the Pontefract win — sits right in the middle of the sequence, sandwiched between a strong third and a disappointing eighth before it. Since that big win, a fourth and a third suggest the horse has been running well without quite finding the same gear. Now Make Me King returns from a three-month break, which is the longest gap in this horse's recent career.

The key question coming back is whether the Pontefract win was the start of something or a peak that's proved hard to match. The record at Class 2 level — 1 win from 4 races — shows this horse can compete but doesn't dominate at that tier. Step it up to Class 1, though, and Make Me King delivered on the biggest stage. That's not nothing. That's actually quite a lot.