Ninety Nine

Both of those wins have come at northern tracks. The first arrived at Hamilton Park in June 2023, and the second — most recently — at Catterick Bridge in October 2024. That Catterick win is now 19 months ago, and Ninety Nine has gone six races without troubling the winner's enclosure since. Recent form reads 10-7-14-2-8-8, which is a mixed picture: that second place is a glimmer of promise, but the double-digit finishes either side of it suggest a horse that is finding things difficult at the moment.

Almost all of Ninety Nine's racing life — 21 of its 28 races — has been spent at Class 6, which is the bottom rung of the British racing ladder. At that level, the horse has won just once from those 21 attempts, a win rate of around 1 in 20, or 5%. That figure deserves a moment's thought. Even in the easiest grade available, Ninety Nine has rarely been able to get its nose in front. The eight places show it is competitive enough to be thereabouts, but converting that into wins has been the challenge.

John Wainwright trains Ninety Nine from his yard in Norton, North Yorkshire, and his team has sent out four winners so far this season. Ninety Nine raced just yesterday, so it is very much an active campaign — the search for that third career win is ongoing. Whether a return to somewhere like Catterick, where it last struck, might be the key is an open question, but for a horse with this profile, finding the right race on the right day is everything.