The Pug

Hammond trains out of Middleham in North Yorkshire, one of the most storied training bases in the country, and his operation has been in decent form this season with 25 winners sent out. The Pug is not his star performer, but at six years old and with a race just one day ago, it is clearly a horse being kept busy and competitive. The partnership with jockey Rob Hornby — 1 win from 9 races together, or roughly 1 in 9 — is a working relationship rather than a golden one, but Hornby clearly knows this horse well enough to keep getting the call.

What does make The Pug genuinely interesting is where and how it wins. Over a mile and three to four furlongs — a mid-distance trip that suits a horse that needs time to warm into its best — it has won 4 from 24 races, or roughly 1 in 6. That is a meaningfully better return than its overall record suggests, and it points to a horse with a specific strength worth exploiting. And then there is Southwell, an artificial-surface track in Nottinghamshire with a peculiar loop-shaped layout: The Pug has won 2 of its 7 races there. In horse racing, finding a course a horse genuinely loves is worth its weight in gold, and Southwell clearly suits.

The last win came at Ffos Las in August 2025 — nine months ago now — and recent form reads 12-9-4-7-4-7, meaning top-four finishes twice in the last six runs without a victory. The Pug is not in the worst form of its life, but it has not found the winner's enclosure for a while. A return to Southwell, over a mile and a half, might be the most obvious route back.