Orne

That Newmarket win came just six weeks after Orne had broken its duck at Kempton Park in September 2023, so the horse arrived at its peak form in a short, sharp burst. Since then, though, it has gone 31 months without winning — a long drought by any measure — and the recent form figures of 3-12-7-10-4-12 make for uncomfortable reading. Finishing third once is fine; the string of double-digit positions suggests a horse that has lost its earlier spark, at least for now.

The distance range of seven furlongs to a mile looks key to anything Orne does well. Over those trips it has won 2 from 5 races, a 40% win rate that is genuinely impressive — and a world away from the 12% it manages when racing at the top level more broadly. That gap tells you this horse can be brilliant over the right trip, against the right opposition, on the right day. Finding that combination again is the challenge.

Jockey Robert Havlin has clearly built something of a partnership here. His record on Orne reads 2 wins from 6 rides together, meaning he has won 1 in every 3 times they have teamed up — an exceptional ratio given how rarely the horse wins overall. Trainer Antony Brittain, operating out of Warthill in North Yorkshire, has sent out 23 winners this season which shows the yard is in decent health, even if Orne itself has not contributed to that tally lately. The five-year-old raced just yesterday, so the yard are clearly keeping it busy and searching for a way back to the form that produced that career-best day at Newmarket.