Patricia R

The four-year-old is trained by Julie Camacho at Norton in North Yorkshire, and the yard is having a strong season — 46 winners sent out already, which is the kind of numbers that tells you this is an operation that knows what it is doing. Camacho has been open about how much she likes this horse. Patricia R won on her very first outing at Thirsk in June 2025, which is no small thing — debut winners often turn out to be above average, because it means the horse was ready and good enough to beat experienced rivals straight out of the gate.

Her next run at Doncaster was arguably even more telling, despite the fact she was beaten. She went down by a head — a whisker — and was still showing signs of inexperience throughout the race. More striking still was the weight difference: the horse that beat her is officially rated 94, while Patricia R was rated just 73 at the time, meaning she was carrying 21lb less. In racing terms, that is a huge gulf on paper, and the fact she nearly won anyway suggests she is operating well above her official ranking. Camacho was blunt about it: give that pair the same weights, she does not expect the result to go the same way.

She followed that near-miss with a win at Carlisle in August, making it two victories from her first four races. She competes mainly at Class 5 level — the bread-and-butter level of British racing, a step below the top tiers — and at that level she has won 2 from 3, a rate of roughly two in every three races. That kind of consistency at any level is hard to ignore.

The one thing to keep in mind is the gap. She has not raced for around eight months, which means she is returning cold from a long break. Whether she comes back as sharp as she left is the question — but the trainer clearly believes there is more to come, and given what she has already shown, that is not a claim that is hard to believe.