Moon Rocket

The six-year-old is trained by Kim Bailey and Mat Nicholls out of Cheltenham, a yard that has sent out 31 winners this season alone, and Moon Rocket has done his share of the heavy lifting. His jockey of choice is Tom Bellamy, who has partnered him in 7 of his 10 races and won 2 of them — roughly 1 in every 3 rides together. Bellamy has been candid about what Moon Rocket is: not flashy, not a horse that turns heads in the paddock, but a genuine, solid competitor who picks up when asked. He has a habit of drifting left late in a race, which is the kind of quirk that gets filed away by sharp punters.

Where Moon Rocket really comes alive is at Doncaster. He has run there 4 times and won 2 of them — that is a 50% win rate at a single track, which in racing terms is extraordinary. His very first career win came there in November 2024, and he returned almost exactly a year later to win there again, in November 2025. Some horses just love a particular place — the shape of the track, the ground, the atmosphere — and Doncaster appears to be Moon Rocket's place.

The one caveat is his record at the very top level. He has run 4 times in Class 1 races — the biggest races in Britain — and has not won any of them. That 0 from 4 record suggests he is still finding his feet against the very best, which makes sense for a horse who only came over from Ireland after winning a point-to-point and was sent straight into hurdling. The team always believed chasing would be his game, and it is beginning to look like they were right. He raced just one day ago and remains very much in action, which means there are almost certainly more chapters still to come.