Spitalfield

That solitary win came at Ffos Las in May 2024, which is now almost exactly two years ago. Since then, Spitalfield has gone 23 races without a victory, and recent form makes for sober reading: finishing 13th, 6th, 8th, 8th, and 3rd in its last five completed outings. The third place is at least a reminder that it can still get involved, but the longer the winless run stretches, the harder it becomes to see where the next victory comes from. The horse raced just one day ago, so it is clearly being kept busy.

Spitalfield spends most of its time competing at Class 4 level — the solid, unglamorous middle ground of British racing — and has won just 1 of 17 races at that level, a 6% win rate. That is a tough number to look at for an 8-year-old with a lot of racing behind it. Jonjo O'Neill Jr is the regular partner in the saddle, riding the horse in 12 of its races for that same single win, giving them a shared win rate of roughly 1 in every 12 together. The yard they both answer to — run by Jonjo O'Neill Sr and A J O'Neill out of Cheltenham — has been in strong form this season with 52 winners, so the training operation is clearly firing. Spitalfield just hasn't quite been able to take advantage of that momentum.

At 8, it is not a young horse with everything ahead of it. But it was racing as recently as yesterday, which tells you the team still believes there is something worth chasing. Whether a second win ever comes will depend on whether the right race comes along at the right time — and whether Spitalfield can recapture the form that took it to Ffos Las on a spring day two years ago.