Almaqam

The Sandown story is worth dwelling on. From just three races there, Almaqam has won twice — that is a 2-from-3 record at a track where even the best horses often come unstuck. The course has long straights that reward horses who travel smoothly and finish strongly, and something about how Almaqam races clearly suits it. The first Sandown win came in May 2024; the second followed almost exactly a year later in May 2025. That kind of consistency, at the highest level, at the same venue, is not something you see every week.

Trainer Ed Walker, based at Upper Lambourn in Berkshire, has had a strong season — 75 winners from the yard so far — and Almaqam is one of the more interesting horses in his string. Walker was candid early in the horse's career that he was not entirely sure what distance suited it best, and getting it started over a mile at Great Yarmouth in April 2024 proved the right call: Almaqam won on debut. Since then, the horse has operated almost exclusively at Class 1 level, winning 2 of its 6 races at that tier — roughly 1 in every 3 — which is a genuinely impressive conversion rate at the top end of the sport.

Now comes the question of what happens next. Almaqam has been off the track for around five months, a notable absence. Its recent form reads 3-2-1-3-6-1 — two wins mixed in with a couple of less convincing efforts, which is the kind of profile that keeps a race interesting rather than confirming this is a certainty every time it runs. But when Almaqam shows up at its best, and particularly when Sandown is on the agenda, it has already proven it belongs at the very top of the sport for a horse its age.