Ajrad

The most telling part of Ajrad's story is what happened after a strong 2024. He won four times that year, which was his best run, but trainer Rod Millman says he has "been paying the penalty ever since"—a blunt way of saying the handicapper punished success by raising the weights he carries. For the past thirteen months, since a win at Bath in September 2025, Ajrad has been unable to get back in front. His recent form reads 4-6-4-4-5-3 across his last six races: mostly fourth and fifth place finishes, the mark of a horse trying hard but running out of room.

Millman, based at his Kentisbeare yard in Devon, knows exactly what makes this horse tick. Ajrad loves straight courses—he has won twice at Chepstow and been runner-up twice there too—and he performs best over a mile and one to a mile and two furlongs. More importantly, he needs to be ridden with patience. The trainer's insight is revealing: the horse can be "too clever," meaning he anticipates what the jockey wants and fights against it. When Millman drops him in at the back of the race and lets him settle, Ajrad finds his rhythm and comes alive. When he is held up too handily, he becomes resentful and starts pulling, which drains him. Lewis Edmunds, who has ridden him three times and won twice, seems to understand that balance better than most. On normal ground conditions he is sharper too—a 25% win rate across eight races shows he genuinely thrives when the track is neither soft nor hard.

Right now Ajrad is a horse in need of patience, a good jockey, the right track, and a race at the right level. On his day at a straight course with someone who lets him relax and travel, he can still win. But that day has not come in over a year, and at his age, with the weights stacked against him, those moments are becoming rarer.