Zebra Star

Her first win came at Great Yarmouth in September 2022, on wet, soft ground, and trainer George Boughey flagged immediately that the conditions were the key. He was right: on soft or muddy ground, Zebra Star has won 2 from 4 races — a 50% record that puts her in an entirely different league compared to her overall figures. File that away, because it matters. Over a distance of seven furlongs to a mile, she has won 2 of 14 races, which works out to roughly 1 in every 7 — a meaningful improvement on her career average and a useful pointer for when to pay attention.

The more compelling part of the story is what happened after a difficult patch. She had surgery to fix a sinus problem — the kind of issue that can quietly drag a horse down without anyone quite knowing why it is underperforming. The operation, carried out by Clyde Vets, appears to have made a real difference. Her current trainer, R Mike Smith, based in Galston in East Ayrshire, said after her win at Ayr that she had genuinely changed: stronger, more mature, and potentially capable of staying further than she has been asked to before. He pointed to a similar case among his jumpers to illustrate the point — this was not spin, it was a pattern he had seen before. That Ayr win, on 21 July 2025, is her most recent victory.

The numbers since then are less encouraging. She has not won in her last 6 races, and her most regular jockey, Amie Waugh, is yet to get her head in front across 5 rides together. Most of her racing has come at Class 6 level — the lower end of the handicap ladder — where she has won 2 from 27 races, or roughly 1 in every 14. She has also been off the track for around six months, so she returns with something to prove.

R Mike Smith's yard has sent out 25 winners this season, so it is not a small operation lacking ambition. If Zebra Star comes back to soft ground over seven furlongs or a mile, the ingredients for another win are there. Whether it happens depends, as it so often does, on the weather.