Sea Founder

The first win came at Windsor in late April 2025, and then — almost exactly a year later — Sea Founder was back in the winner's enclosure at Kempton Park, just this week. Two wins, twelve months apart, bookending a season of grinding away without a victory in between. Recent form shows a couple of mid-pack finishes and a couple of blanks before that Kempton success, which makes the win feel all the more satisfying for everyone involved.

One curious thread running through Sea Founder's career is the partnership with jockey Finley Marsh. They have raced together five times and not yet won — 0 from 5 is a frustrating sequence, and it raises the obvious question of whether a different rider brings out something different in this horse, given that both career victories have come with other jockeys aboard. It is not a crisis, but it is the kind of stat a knowledgeable observer quietly notices.

Behind the scenes, Sea Founder is trained by Richard Hughes at Upper Lambourn in Berkshire — a yard that has sent out 65 winners already this season, which tells you this is a professional, well-run operation with no shortage of ammunition. Horses trained here are generally fit, prepared, and pointed at the right races. At the same time, Sea Founder has been entered in Class 4 races — the solid middle tier of British racing — five times without winning, which is a touch surprising given the ability that Kempton clearly showed. It may be that the horse simply prefers different conditions or tracks, and those two wins at Windsor and Kempton could be the clue worth following.

With a win just days ago, Sea Founder heads into whatever comes next with fresh confidence and a trainer with plenty of momentum behind them. One to watch.