Old Is Gold

The recent form tells a frustrating story. In the last six races, Old Is Gold has managed just one place finish (a third) among results that include a tenth and a twelfth. The horse is only 3 years old, so there is time to recapture that winning feeling, but the pattern is clear: stepping up to Class 2 racing—the sort of races where the best horses in Britain compete—is proving tougher than that breakthrough suggested. When competing at that level across three races, the horse has won once (33% win rate), but that single success now looks like an outlier rather than the start of something consistent.

Trained by Andrew Balding at Kingsclere in Hampshire, Old Is Gold has the advantage of one of the country's top yards behind it. Balding's operation has already sent out 202 winners this season, a sign of a stable with both resources and judgment. The challenge for the team now is to work out whether the horse can rediscover the form of May 2025 or whether that Beverley win was simply one perfect afternoon. At 12% overall win rate from eight races, Old Is Gold remains unproven—most of what we know about this horse comes from a single shining moment, and from the harder truth of what has followed.