Shagraan

Trained by Clive Cox at Lambourn — a yard that has sent out 48 winners this season alone — Shagraan began life as a sharp, quick horse over six furlongs, breaking his duck at Windsor in July 2023 with what Cox described at the time as a strong, travelling performance. From there the ambition grew. A Class 2 win at Haydock Park in September 2024 came despite being drawn on the wrong side of the track and racing on ground softer than ideal; the fact he won anyway said something about his ability to find a way. His overall record in Class 2 races reads 1 win from 11 attempts — roughly one in every eleven — which sounds modest until you consider that Class 2 races are among the toughest in Britain below the very top tier.

The autumn of 2025 is where Shagraan truly announced himself. Back-to-back Class 1 wins at Beverley in late August and then Ascot in early October put him in rare company. Winning once at that level takes talent; doing it twice in five weeks takes something more. Post-race at Ascot, the trainer was clear-eyed about what had happened: this horse is still developing, and the expectation is that he will be a Group-level contender next year. Group races are the pinnacle of the sport, the ones that define a career.

His recent six-race sequence reads third, first, second, first, fourth, eighth — a horse clearly in fine form, finishing in the top three in four of his last five outings. Tom Marquand has ridden him six times, winning once, but it was Kieran Shoemark in the saddle for that Ascot success, executing the trainer's instructions to the letter. With 5 wins and 13 places from 24 races — a win rate of around 1 in every 5 — Shagraan has been consistently competitive. The question now is whether next spring confirms what those two autumn results have already started to suggest.