Peckforton Hills

That sole career win came at Carlisle in February 2025, and while fifteen months without a victory might sound like a long wait, there are good reasons to believe the clock hasn't been running fairly. His most recent run over hurdles at Ayr ended with him scoping dirty — a respiratory issue that means the race told his team almost nothing useful. You can't judge a horse on a race where he wasn't right, any more than you'd judge a runner who crossed the line with a torn hamstring.

What makes Peckforton Hills genuinely interesting is what Oliver Greenall and Josh Guerriero have planned for him. The Oldcastle, Cheshire yard — which has sent out 43 winners already this season, so these are people who know how to place a horse — believe he is going to make a serious chaser. Chasing means jumping fences rather than hurdles, and it's widely accepted in the sport that some horses simply don't find their true level until they make that switch. Greenall and Guerriero are talking about building him up steadily, stepping him up in distance as the season goes on. That's the language of a team with a plan.

His recent form reads 2-2-blank-3-7-6, which looks patchy, but the blank was that Ayr run when he was unwell, and the two second-place finishes show he's competitive when right. At Class 5, the level he usually operates at, he wins 1 in every 4 races — a solid record that suggests he does belong when conditions suit. The real question is whether chasing unlocks something extra. If it does, a horse who has quietly placed four times in ten races could start making some noise at a higher level entirely.