Rubaud

What makes Rubaud particularly special is his relationship with certain tracks and certain conditions. On normal ground, he wins 9 from 13 races — that's 69%, or very nearly 7 in every 10. That is not luck; that is a horse who knows his job and does it brilliantly when the conditions suit. At Wincanton, the Somerset track practically belongs to him: 3 wins from 5 races, including back-to-back wins in November 2024 and November 2025. Nicholls runs one of the biggest yards in the country — 92 winners already this season — and yet Rubaud earns his keep at the very top of the programme, with 9 of his 11 wins coming in Class 1 races, the highest grade in Britain.

The partnership with jockey Harry Cobden is worth highlighting on its own. Together they have raced 20 times and won 11 of them — that's 55%, more than 1 in every 2 rides ending in victory. That kind of chemistry between horse and rider is rare, and it shows up in the results. Rubaud won the same Listed hurdle at Kempton three years in a row, in October 2024, February 2025, and October 2025 — a feat that Nicholls himself noted received barely a mention in the press, which feels like a genuine injustice. Three consecutive wins in the same top-level race is the kind of thing that should be on a poster.

At eight years old and still racing just yesterday, Rubaud is in the form of his life. Nicholls has been open about the fact that the horse is occasionally asked to dig deep — after a hard race at Kempton, he noted Rubaud looked flat in the coat and took time to recover before Wincanton — but the horse keeps finding more. The trainer has also hinted at possible targets like the National Spirit or the Kingwell Hurdle if conditions are right, with a move to chasing potentially saved for next season. For now, this is a horse doing something rare: making the very best races in Britain look almost routine.