Vaguely Royal

What makes Vaguely Royal genuinely interesting is how much better it is when given room to gallop. At distances between a mile and six furlongs and two miles, it has won 3 of 11 races — that's a 27% win rate, roughly 1 in every 4 races, which is a strong return at any level. Compress the trip and those numbers fall away sharply. This is a horse that needs to be ridden with confidence over a proper distance, and when it gets that, a different animal tends to show up.

The biggest moment of its career came at Wolverhampton in December 2023, winning a Class 2 race — one of the better races you'll find outside the top tier in Britain. That result suggested real quality, and it remains the benchmark for what Vaguely Royal is capable of on its best day. The first career win had come six months earlier at Doncaster, so there was a period where everything clicked. The challenge now is finding that version of the horse again.

Kieran Shoemark has ridden Vaguely Royal eight times and won twice — a 25% win rate, or 1 in every 4 rides together — which is a notably productive partnership for a horse that only wins 1 in every 8 races overall. When Shoemark is in the saddle, something changes. Trainer Ian Williams, based in Worcestershire, has sent out 96 winners this season alone, so this is a yard that knows how to get horses ready to perform. The team clearly believes there is another win in Vaguely Royal — the key question is whether the right race, right distance, and right conditions all line up at the same time.