The Flier Begley

At 11 years old, this is a horse who has been around the block. Across 35 races, he has won 6 times and placed a further 19, which means he has finished in the first three in just over 70% of his races — a remarkable level of consistency for a horse competing at this level. His overall win rate of roughly 1 in every 6 races (17%) does not tell the full story, because the wins have come at exactly the right moments. In January 2025 he won a Class 2 race at Market Rasen — one of the better races in the calendar — and then in April he followed that up by winning at Haydock Park, a £100,000 race that is about as big as it gets outside the very top tier of the sport. Trainer Gary Hanmer, who runs a small yard in Tattenhall, Cheshire, has quietly sent out 19 winners this season, and he has clearly found something with this horse that others missed.

The key, according to Hanmer, is keeping him fresh. Older horses can go stale if you ask too much of them too often, and The Flier Begley is a case in point — when the team pushed their luck and ran him in the Summer Plate last year after he had already won a trial for it, he found it one race too many. When they backed off and freshened him up, he came back and won at Haydock. Jockey Jack Hogan, who has ridden him in 10 of his races, knows that better than most — together they have won 5 times, a win rate of 50%, which is an extraordinary partnership by any measure.

He particularly loves wet, soft ground, winning 2 of 4 races on it, and Market Rasen has become something of a home venue, with 2 wins from just 4 visits. With the Summer Plate at Market Rasen on 19 July already in the team's sights, and a horse who has proven he can rise to the big occasion, this old boy may have one more big day left in him yet.