Tour Ovalie

What makes her record genuinely interesting is how good she is at one specific track. At Ludlow, she has won 2 of just 4 races — that's half her visits ending in victory at one of the top levels in Britain. She won a Class 2 race there in December 2024, then came back to the exact same track twelve months later and did it again. That kind of course form is not a coincidence — it suggests something about the track suits her perfectly, whether that's the shape of the course, the way the ground rides, or simply that she peaks in winter. Her trainer, Mrs C Williams, based at Llancarfan in the Vale of Glamorgan, put it simply after one of those wins: "Tour Ovalie just wins races."

The ground matters enormously with this horse. On slightly soft underfoot conditions, she has won 4 of 10 races — 40%, or nearly 1 in every 2.5 outings. That is a remarkable number. It means that when the rain arrives and the ground softens up, Tour Ovalie becomes a very different, very dangerous proposition. Her trainer flagged this early on, noting she would need some give in the ground to be at her best, and the record has proven that right.

The partnership with jockey Isabel Williams is central to how she operates. Together they have won 6 from 23 races — roughly 1 in every 4 — and the trainer has been candid about what it takes: she has to be delivered late, held up and produced at the right moment. It's a tactical challenge, which makes going up in class difficult, but at the level she competes, it works beautifully. Her most recent run came just yesterday, so she is right in the middle of an active campaign, with her last win at Ludlow in December 2025 still fresh in the memory. A horse that wins the same prestigious race at the same track in back-to-back years deserves a great deal of respect.