Tilsworth Max

The numbers are honest about where Tilsworth Max fits in. Of 22 races at Class 6 level, there has been just the one win, a 5% win rate, or 1 from every 22 attempts. At the distances it handles best — seven furlongs to a mile — the record reads 1 win from 15 races, around 7%, which is actually above the overall career average and suggests there is a version of this horse that is capable of being competitive when conditions are right. Five career place finishes from 29 races tell you it is rarely embarrassing itself, even if the winner's enclosure has been largely off limits.

Jockey Jonny Peate has been the regular partner, riding Tilsworth Max in 9 of those 29 races and being aboard for that January win — a record of 1 from 9 together, roughly 11%, which is meaningfully better than the horse's overall average and hints at a genuine working relationship. The pair are trained out of Royston in Hertfordshire by J R Jenkins, a yard that has sent out 7 winners this season, so there is clearly plenty of ability in the stable, even if Tilsworth Max has not been the one leading the charge.

Recent form — finishing sixth, fifth, third, fifth, and third in its last five completed races — paints a picture of a horse trying hard enough without quite getting there. It raced just yesterday, so this is very much a live story. Whether Lingfield in January turns out to be the start of something or simply the high point of a journeyman career remains to be seen, but at six years old and with 29 races of experience under its belt, Tilsworth Max is nothing if not a stayer in the truest sense.