Belmont Derby

Belmont Derby Stakes – Grade 1 Saratoga – 4th July 2026 “This horse is unbelievably difficult to beat and despite his compact size, he is developing a reputation as one of the best turf horses of his generation” What a race! A margin of just 0.04s between the first 3 when they crossed the line […]

Coral Eclipse

Coral-Eclipse (G1) Sandown Park – 4th July 2026 Constitution River and Ryan Moore (orange and blue) winning The Coral-Eclipse Sandown 4.6.26 Pic Dan Abraham-focusonracing.com Does the 10 lbs weight for age allowance make a big difference to the 3-year-olds chances? I think I would have to say that at this time of the year, the […]

Bet365 Highlander Stakes

Bet365 Highlander Stakes – Grade 2 Woodbine – 27th June 2026 Horse Racing is about puzzle solving and that’s one of the great attractions to the sport. Much like other aspects of life, some puzzles are easier to solve than others, but there are also occasions when solutions can be very obvious. Although this is […]

JenningsBet Northumberland Plate Handicap

JenningsBet Northumberland Plate Handicap (Heritage Handicap) Newcastle – 27th June 2026 “The winner is a smart horse who is worthy of his likely new 100+ rating, but on a track that was riding quickly and favouring the prominent runners, I can’t help but think that there was at least a small amount of good fortune […]

Stephen Foster Stakes Preview

Stephen Foster Stakes (G1) Churchill Downs – 27th June 2026 A small but select field will go to post for the Grade 1 Stephen Foster Stakes at Churchill Downs on Saturday. The race would look to revolve around the best of last year’s Triple Crown form, but when we add in the multiple Grade 1 […]

Royal Ascot 2026 The 2-year-olds

Royal Ascot 2026 The 2-Year-Old Review I certainly wasn’t short of material when it came to choosing a topic for this week’s column for TPD. Royal Ascot was fantastic and 35 highly competitive races presented a wealth of data that could be used to create some interesting angles. Scandinavia and Trawlerman producing a Gold Cup […]

Coronation Stakes

Coronation Stakes (Group 1) Ascot – 19th June 2026 The original plan for Friday’s content had been a review of the Commonwealth Cup. For what it’s worth, I thought Venetian Sun was superb and she finished her race in the manner of a horse who is dominant in her division. However, as good as Karl […]

The Gold Cup

Gold Cup (G1) Ascot – 18th June 2026 If ever a race summed up the magic of Royal Ascot, it was this year’s Gold Cup and the battle between Trawlerman and Scandinavia in the straight. We can spend all week looking at 3-year-old form, studying 2-year-old pedigrees and trying to spot an improver or pouring […]

Prince Of Wales’s Stakes

Prince Of Wales’s Stakes (G1) Ascot – 17th June 2026 It’s hard to equate how many column inches, TV broadcasts and podcast minutes have been devoted to the argument over who is the world’s best racehorse? Every racing fan, in every country around the world will have their own opinion and great cases can be […]

St James’s Palace Stakes

St James’s Palace Stakes (G1) Ascot – 17th June 2026 This race was billed as a match between the best of this year’s 3-year-old Colts and it turned out to be exactly that. Bow Echo and Gstaad are a pair of extraordinary talents and they served up one of the best renewals of the St […]