Special John

What stands out is how well he performs at the level he is pitched at. In Class 5 races — the bread-and-butter level of jump racing in Britain — Special John has won 2 from 5, which is 40%, or winning 2 in every 5. That is a sharp figure at any level. It suggests Sam Thomas and his team have a good read on where this horse belongs and are placing him in races he can win rather than sending him out to make up the numbers at a higher grade.

Thomas himself is training out of Lisvane in South Glamorgan and has sent out 23 winners so far this season, which puts the yard in genuinely productive form. When a yard is firing like that, the horses in it tend to be fit, well-drilled, and ready to run — and Special John looks like one of the stable's sharper tools right now. His recent sequence of 1-1-5-5-2-1 (reading oldest to most recent) shows a horse who had a brief dip in form mid-sequence but came back to win, and win again. That kind of resilience matters.

He got off the mark for the first time at Exeter back in November 2025 and has not looked back. Now, less than a year on, he has three career wins to his name, is racing with confidence, and is in the hands of a team in good form. Whatever comes next, Special John heads into it as a horse who knows how to win — and has proved it recently enough to mean it.