Queens Gamble

The most striking thread running through her career is what she does on normal ground. In five races on standard conditions she has won four of them — an extraordinary 80% win rate — and that consistency on her preferred surface tells you that when the ground suits her, she is a genuinely difficult horse to beat. Her relationship with Cheltenham is similarly compelling: two wins from four visits to one of the most demanding tracks in the country, a place where plenty of horses with excellent records elsewhere simply fail to fire. Winning there twice puts Queens Gamble in select company.

Jockey Jonathan Burke has been on board for eight of her fifteen races and has won four of them — exactly half. That 50% win rate together is remarkable: it suggests the partnership has genuinely clicked, each seemingly bringing out the best in the other. Her trainer Harry Derham, based at Upper Lambourn, has had a powerful season with 57 winners from his yard, and Queens Gamble has been one of the jewels in it. The Class 1 win at Wincanton on Valentine's Day this year was her most recent, and after it Derham was candid: this will likely be her final season, with retirement to breeding ahead. He spoke warmly about the Frost and Galvin family who own her, calling her incredibly important to them, and said he'd love to give her one more run somewhere nice in the spring.

At eight years old and with a hard summer behind her — she suffered two bouts of colic — the fact that she is still winning at the top level is testament to both the horse and the yard that has kept her sound and competitive. Queens Gamble races on, and the people around her are clearly determined to enjoy every last moment of it.