Strike Red

Two of those five wins have come at York, and both were in top-level Class 2 races, one of the highest grades in British racing. Winning at that level once is an achievement. Winning there twice, two years apart, on 12 October 2022 and again on 12 October 2024, suggests this isn't luck — Strike Red simply goes well at York. From 9 races there, he's won 2, which works out at just over 1 in every 4 attempts at the track. For a horse operating regularly at Class 2 — where the fields are deep and the competition sharp — that's genuinely impressive. Across his 36 races at that level, he's only won 2 in every 33, so those York victories stand well apart from the broader picture.

The other thing worth knowing is that Strike Red thrives when the ground is wet and heavy. In those conditions he wins 2 races from every 6, a 33% hit rate that dwarfs anything he does on drier ground. That's the kind of statistic that makes a trainer watch the weather forecast very carefully before entering a race.

He is trained by Richard and Peter Fahey at Musley Bank in North Yorkshire — a yard that has sent out 9 winners already this season and clearly knows how to place a horse. The partnership with jockey Billy Garritty has been the most productive of Strike Red's career: Garritty has ridden him 27 times and won on 4 of them, which is roughly 1 in every 7 rides together and meaningfully better than the horse's overall win rate.

Crucially, Strike Red is very much still in the game. He won at Leicester on 25 April 2026 — just three weeks ago — and raced again yesterday. His last six runs read 10-1-3-11-11-8, so the Leicester win was a return to form after some quieter efforts. At eight years old, with a Class 2 win on his record and a trainer who clearly still believes in him, he's a horse worth keeping an eye on, especially if the clouds roll in.