Badri

The career numbers tell an interesting story on their own. Thirteen wins from 67 races works out at roughly 1 in every 5, which is a solid return for any horse. But the detail that really catches the eye is his record at Pontefract: three wins from just four races there. To put that in context, most horses barely manage a win rate of 1 in 5 across their whole career — Badri wins 3 in every 4 times he turns up at that particular track. That kind of course dominance is rare, and punters have long since noticed.

He is trained by Michael Herrington at Willoughton in Lincolnshire, a yard that has sent out 33 winners already this season — a serious operation. Herrington has been open about picking Badri up from Ruth Carr's yard, crediting Carr for doing a fine job before him. The plan at Herrington's is simple: stick to what works, which means sprint races on fast, dry ground. On that surface specifically, Badri has won 4 from 9 — nearly 1 in every 2 — compared to a much more modest 7% win rate in the top-level Class 2 races he typically enters. That gap is a reminder that conditions really do matter, and when everything lines up for this horse, something special tends to happen.

The highlight on his CV is a Class 2 win at Ascot in October 2023, one of the top tier of races in Britain. There was also a victory on the famous Epsom Downs course that same summer — a track that famously sorts out horses from pretenders. His trainer has since admitted they once thought Badri was purely an all-weather horse, which makes his grass performances all the more satisfying. Jason Hart, his most regular partner in the saddle, has ridden him to 2 wins from 11 rides together — a workmanlike partnership rather than a lightning-rod one, though clearly they know each other well enough.

At nine years old, some horses are winding down. Badri appears to be doing the opposite.