Stumps Or Slips

The recent form tells the story best. Three wins from the last six races — including a victory at Chepstow just this week — puts Stumps Or Slips firmly in the spotlight. The overall career win rate of 30%, roughly winning 1 in every 3 races, is genuinely impressive at any level, and the current sequence suggests the horse is hitting a purple patch at nine years old, an age when plenty of horses have already started to fade.

Most of its racing has come at Class 5, the bread-and-butter level of British jump racing, where it has won 3 from 14 (about 1 in every 5 races at that level). There is, however, a particular fondness for Worcester, where Stumps Or Slips has won 2 of its 8 races there. Winning a quarter of your races at one track is the kind of number that makes trainers and jockeys take note when the entries come out.

Sean Bowen has been the regular partner for this horse, and the numbers between them are striking — 4 wins from 9 races together, meaning they have won nearly half the time they have teamed up. That is an exceptional partnership by any measure. When one of jump racing's leading jockeys wins almost 44% of his races on a particular horse, it tells you there is a real understanding between rider and animal.

Trained by Edward William Walker, whose yard has sent out one winner so far this season, Stumps Or Slips is clearly the flag-bearer at the moment. The horse began its winning career at Warwick back in April 2023 and has kept on building since. Three years on, with a win this week and form figures reading 1-1-2 across the last three completed runs, this is a horse worth watching closely over the weeks ahead.