Valiancy

What makes that even more striking is where those wins have come from. Valiancy has gone winless in 3 attempts at its usual level — Class 4, which is essentially the bread-and-butter tier of British racing — but step it up into Class 2 company, one of the top races in Britain, and it delivered at Haydock Park in September 2025. That is the kind of result that makes you look twice. Some horses are flattered by easier races and found out when the quality improves. Valiancy appears to work the other way around, producing its best when surrounded by better.

The career started at Hamilton Park in June 2025, and this week Valiancy returned there and won again — suggesting the track genuinely suits, and that the horse arrives at Hamilton in form rather than by accident. Racing just one day ago and still clearly in great shape, this is a horse at the peak of its powers right now.

Behind all of this is William Haggas, one of the most productive trainers in Britain. His Newmarket yard has sent out 170 winners already this season — that is not a stable ticking over, that is a machine running at full speed. When a yard of that calibre keeps pointing a horse at races, it is because they believe in it. Valiancy, with its habit of rising to better occasions and its refusal to finish out of the first three in five of its last six outings, looks very much worth believing in.