Newsreader

Start with the ground. On wet, muddy ground, Newsreader has won 3 of 7 races — a 43% win rate that is extraordinary by any measure. That is nearly 1 in every 2 races, in conditions most horses would rather avoid. It suggests a horse built for hard work rather than fast, dry ground, the type that digs in and finds something extra when the going gets unpleasant.

Then there is Kempton Park. Three wins from seven races at the same track is the kind of number that makes you sit up. Kempton is a flat, all-weather circuit in Surrey, and some horses simply take to its particular shape and surface in a way that cannot easily be explained. Newsreader is one of them. That record amounts to winning almost 1 in every 2 races there — a course record that would be the envy of far more celebrated horses. Its first win came at Kempton in January 2024 and its most recent also came there, in November 2024, suggesting this is no fluke.

The partnership with jockey Benoit De La Sayette is worth noting too. Together they have won 3 of their 8 races — 38%, or well over 1 in every 3 — which is a very healthy return and suggests a real understanding between horse and rider. Trainer Edward Smyth-Osbourne, based in Upper Lambourn in Berkshire, has sent out 8 winners already this season, so the yard is in decent nick.

The awkward truth, though, is that Newsreader has not won in its last six races, with recent form reading 6-6-3-2-8-9 — a sequence of near-misses and worse. The last win came 18 months ago. Whether that winning version of Newsreader can be unlocked again probably depends on finding a race at Kempton, on a wet day, with De La Sayette in the saddle. That might sound like a narrow window — but when all three come together, this horse has shown it can be genuinely difficult to beat.