Yokohama

That gap is worth pausing on. Yokohama typically competes at Class 4 level — the middle tier of British racing — and has not managed a single win from 12 races at that grade. Zero from twelve. It sounds bleak, and it is. But zoom out slightly and you find a horse that, given the right trip and the right conditions, suddenly looks competitive. Its first career win came at Newcastle in September 2023, and this week it added a second, winning at Newbury on 15 May 2026. That is a significant venue — Newbury regularly hosts some of the better races in the calendar — and winning there at any level is not nothing.

The trainer behind these moments is John Butler, who operates out of Newmarket in Suffolk, one of the historic heartlands of British horse racing. Butler's yard has sent out 34 winners already this season, which speaks to a team that knows how to place their horses in races they can win. With Yokohama, that skill matters enormously — finding the right race at the right distance is what turns a winless run into a timely victory. The horse raced just yesterday and remains very much in active campaign, with recent form that shows a win, two placed efforts, and a couple of forgettable days mixed in. It is a horse you would not necessarily trust to win every time out — but one worth watching when the distance stretches out.