Westmorian

Tuer is candid about what unlocked this horse: soft, wet ground. For much of his career, Westmorian was ticking over without quite fulfilling his potential, but when the conditions finally suited him, he went on a hat-trick at Lingfield Park across the winter months — three wins in a row at the same track in the kind of form that gets people talking. His best results have almost all come on normal to wet ground; on normal conditions alone, he has won 5 of 17 races, a win rate of 29%, which is exceptionally strong. On fast, dry ground, he simply does not reach those heights.

His relationship with Southwell is the other headline. Three wins from 8 races at that track makes him a genuine course specialist there — that is a 37% win rate at one venue, which in racing terms means the horse simply knows the place. His first career win came at Southwell back in December 2022, and he has kept returning to it with results. Sam James, his most regular jockey with 16 rides together, has partnered him to 2 of those wins, though Tuer will be the first to admit the horse has sometimes needed the stars to align.

The last win came at Lingfield on Good Friday, 18 April 2025, and that hat-trick pushed his official rating up to 90 — a number that reflects how well he was going. His recent form has been patchier since, with finishes of 9th and 13th before a couple of runs where he did not complete the course. That is the reality of a horse operating at a higher rating than he has been used to; the competition gets tougher and the margins get smaller.

Tuer has a clear plan. If wet ground arrives at Ayr, Westmorian will be aimed at the Ayr Silver Cup — a serious, well-regarded race that would represent the biggest occasion of his career. With 26 winners from the yard already this season, the stable is in fine form. Whether soft ground and a big day suit him remains to be seen, but this is a horse with genuine reasons to be excited about.