Baileys Khelstar

The six-year-old has earned 3 wins and 8 places from 13 races — a win rate of 23%, meaning it wins roughly 1 in every 4 outings — which is a perfectly respectable record. But the detail that jumps out is where those wins have come. Baileys Khelstar opened its account at Beverley in July 2023, then went on to win at Ascot in May 2024, a track that hosts some of the most prestigious racing in Britain. That is a significant scalp. Yet in Class 5 races — the bread-and-butter, everyday level of the sport — it has gone 0 from 5. Five races, zero wins. A horse capable of winning at Ascot should, in theory, be competitive at that level, which makes the blank record there genuinely baffling.

Jockey Joe Fanning has been the regular partner, riding Baileys Khelstar in 7 of its 13 races and winning 2 of them — a win rate of 29%, or just under 1 in 3, which is an excellent ratio and suggests the partnership suits the horse. Fanning is an experienced hand at the Middleham Moor yard of Charlie Johnston, one of the busiest and most productive stables in the country this season, having sent out 125 winners. When a yard is firing at that volume, they know which horses need careful placing — and Baileys Khelstar may be one that needs exactly the right opportunity to show its best.

Recent form tells a story of mixed fortunes: two wins in the last six races is encouraging, but an 11th-place finish and a 7th also sit in that same sequence, hinting at inconsistency. The Ascot win came 23 months ago, so there will be questions about whether that performance can be reproduced. Still, with the horse active just one day ago and clearly still in training, the team evidently believes there is more to come. The puzzle is finding the race that suits — and given what Baileys Khelstar has already achieved at one of racing's grandest venues, writing it off would be premature.