Rich Belief

The highlight of its career came in May 2022, when it won a Class 2 race at Kelso — one of the top races in Britain at that level. To win at that standard is not something every horse manages, and it tells you this is not simply a plodder making up the numbers. That win came just weeks after its first career victory at Limerick in April 2022, suggesting a horse that briefly found its very best form and ran with it.

Most recently, Rich Belief won at Chester in June 2024 — but that was 23 months ago, and the six races since have brought nothing better than a second place. The recent sequence reads 19th, 6th, 8th, 2nd, 7th, 17th, and with Rich Belief having raced just yesterday, it is clearly still active and being aimed at opportunities. The question the yard at Skerries will be asking is whether that Chester win marked the end of a chapter, or whether another bold run is still in the locker.

Karl Thornton has sent out four winners this season, so the yard is not short of form. Robbie Colgan, who rides Rich Belief most often, has partnered the horse in 8 races together for 1 win — winning roughly 1 in every 8 times they team up, a rate of 12%. At Class 4 level, though, the picture brightens: Rich Belief has won 1 from 3 races at that grade, a success rate of 33%, which translates to winning 1 in every 3 attempts. For a horse at this stage of its career, finding the right level matters, and Class 4 appears to be where the ammunition is kept.