Baileys Khelstar

The six-year-old is trained by Charlie Johnston at Middleham Moor in North Yorkshire, part of a yard that has been in extraordinary form this season — 131 winners and counting. That is not a small operation quietly ticking along; that is one of the most productive stables in the country right now, and Baileys Khelstar is a working part of it. The horse's most regular partner in the saddle is Joe Fanning, who has ridden it in seven races and won twice — a win rate of roughly 1 in 3.5, or about 29%, which is a genuinely strong return for a jockey-horse combination at this level.

What makes the recent form particularly eye-catching is the timing. Baileys Khelstar won at Kempton Park just last week — on 8 July 2026 — and raced again yesterday. Two wins from the last six races, with the sequence reading 6-1-1-2-2-4 most recent first, shows a horse that hit a rich vein of form and has been kept busy while the confidence is high. Back-to-back second places before those wins suggest the horse was knocking on the door before it finally kicked it open.

There is one puzzle in the record worth flagging: in five races at Class 5 — broadly the lower end of the competitive ladder — Baileys Khelstar has not won once. Yet it has five career wins to its name, which means every single victory has come when stepped up into better company. That is unusual, and rather interesting. It hints at a horse that perhaps needs a proper challenge to produce its best, one that responds to being asked a serious question rather than coasting through easier races.

First past the post at Beverley back in July 2023, and still winning at Kempton three years later — Baileys Khelstar has shown real staying power over a career that shows no sign of slowing down.