A Different Kind

The story started in style. When A Different Kind first raced at Sedgefield in September 2021, the team fully expected a win — and they got one, by 15 lengths. Three weeks later they went back to the same track, asked the horse to carry extra weight as punishment for winning, and he won again, this time by ten lengths. That set the tone. He has now raced at Sedgefield three times and won all three. A perfect record at one track is rare in any sport; in racing it's the kind of thing that makes people sit up. Three from three is not a fluke — it suggests the track, the distance, or simply the atmosphere suits him in ways that are hard to explain but impossible to ignore.

The peak of his career came at Haydock Park in December 2021, when he won a Class 2 race — one of the top tier events in British racing. His jockey Brian Hughes pointed out afterwards that one of the beaten horses had been rated 89 on the Flat and was receiving a weight allowance, so the form was stronger than the small field size suggested. Hughes knows this horse better than anyone: riding him in 19 of his 28 races, he has won 9 of those — roughly 1 in every 2, a remarkable 47% success rate together. His assessment of A Different Kind as a horse that "switches off and just does what you ask him to" says something important: this is not a difficult animal. He's consistent, manageable, and honest.

That said, A Different Kind has not won in his last six races, and his most recent victory came at Perth in September 2023 — over 33 months ago now. He is nine years old, and the form figures from his last six runs make for modest reading. He raced just yesterday, so he is clearly still in training and still competing. Whether he can find that winning thread again at his best Class 3 level, where he has won 4 from 9 races, is the interesting question now.