Badri

Those tracks matter. Badri has won at Ascot and Epsom, both Class 2 races — meaning two of the top tier of British racing — in the space of a few months in 2023. Winning at Epsom is a particular trick because of the extraordinary camber and slope of the track; horses that handle it well tend to have a natural balance and athleticism that sets them apart. The trainer at the time noted that beforehand they had assumed Badri was purely a horse for the all-weather surfaces, essentially an indoor specialist, and that running him on grass at Epsom felt like an experiment. It wasn't just an experiment — it was a revelation.

Badri is now trained by Michael Herrington, based in Willoughton in Lincolnshire, a yard that has sent out 33 winners already this season, which speaks to a stable in genuinely good form. Herrington inherited Badri from Ruth Carr's operation, where the horse had already won four times, and has been quick to credit Carr's work. The plan is simple: keep doing what works. That means short, fast sprint races — five furlongs — on dry ground, where Badri has won 3 from 8 races, a 38% win rate that is an extraordinary return at this level. That is more than 1 in every 3 races on fast ground, compared to roughly 1 in 14 across his Class 2 career as a whole. The surface genuinely transforms him.

His most regular jockey, Jason Hart, has ridden him to 1 win from their 10 races together, a modest 10% return that tells you the competition at this level is fierce — but that win ratio across the partnership doesn't tell the whole story of a horse clearly capable of rising to the moment. Recent form of a win, then a sixth, then a distant thirteenth, before bouncing straight back to winning at Redcar suggests a horse who runs his own race, peaks when conditions suit, and is not done yet. At nine, most horses are winding down. Badri just won this week.