Pleasant Man

The headline result came at Great Yarmouth in September 2021, when Pleasant Man won the Yarmouth Stakes, one of the top races in Britain. It was also his first career win, which tells you something about the kind of horse he is — not always straightforward, but capable of delivering when the stars align. The owner's representative was blunt about it afterwards: he described Pleasant Man as "quite a lazy type" and suggested that without jockey Adam Kirby riding to precise instructions, the race would have been lost. That is a revealing detail. Some horses win despite themselves, and Pleasant Man seems to be one of them.

After that peak, life got harder. He was found to have had a breathing problem following a run over hurdles at Kempton, which led to a surgical procedure and a period off. Trainer Joey Ramsden, based in Newark, was confident at the time that the horse would bounce back and "leave that form well behind" — and he did manage a further win at Southwell in January 2025. But that was now over 16 months ago, and his last six races have produced no wins, with a seventh-place finish the most recent.

What Pleasant Man does have is clear preferences. On normal ground, he wins 2 from 9 races — 22%, which is a genuinely strong figure and means he wins nearly 1 in every 4 races when conditions suit him. Over longer distances of a mile and three-quarters to two miles, he has taken 2 from 14 races — 14%, or about 1 in 7. He operates mainly at Class 4 level, the solid middle tier of the sport, where he has won 2 of 16 races, roughly 1 in 8. Joey Ramsden's yard has sent out five winners this season, so the operation is ticking over, and Pleasant Man raced just yesterday, meaning he is firmly in the middle of an active campaign.

At eight years old, with a top-level win already on his record, he is probably not going to scale those heights again. But on the right ground, over the right trip, there may yet be another winning day in him.