Apollo One

What makes Apollo One's story genuinely interesting is that 1 of those 2 wins came in one of the top races in Britain. On 5 October 2024, he won at Ascot, one of Britain's most prestigious tracks, and that victory came in a Class 1 race — the kind of race where you face the best horses in the country. It was a remarkable achievement for a horse whose career average would suggest he belongs in lower company. That win came more than two years after his first victory at Kempton Park in November 2022, which tells you how rare his moments at the top are. He won a Class 2 race at Kempton that day, but he has not won in the 25 months since his Ascot triumph, despite racing regularly. In Class 2 company, where he typically competes, he has just 1 win from 20 races — a 5% record that suggests he regularly finds himself out of his depth.

His recent form is sobering. In his last six races, his placings were 17th, 8th, 4th, 10th, 14th, and 9th — mixed results with nothing consistent except the pattern of finishing without winning. He was last out just a day ago and remains in active training with P. Charalambous and J. Clutterbuck at Newmarket. Richard Kingscote has ridden him most often, winning 1 of 11 races together, a rate of 9%. Apollo One is a horse with a ceiling — capable of competing at the very top on his day, as Ascot proved — but most days he runs out of answers before the finish line.