Belsito

The six-year-old has been racing for a few years now, with his first win coming at Redcar back in September 2022. Since then he has built a career record of 5 wins and 11 placed finishes from 29 races — steady rather than spectacular at first glance, but the recent form tells a different story. In his last 6 races he has won 3 of them, with his last three results reading 1, 1, and 1 before a couple of quieter runs and then a return to the top four. That kind of hot streak suggests a horse who has found his rhythm.

One detail that stands out is his record on wet or muddy ground. In five races when conditions have been soft or heavy underfoot, he has won twice — a 40% win rate on that surface. That is dramatically better than his overall numbers, and it suggests that when the forecast turns grey and the ground gets soggy, Belsito is worth paying close attention to.

He is trained by Kevin Ryan at Hambleton in North Yorkshire, a yard that has sent out 45 winners already this season — a busy, successful operation. His most regular partner in the saddle has been jockey Tom Eaves, who has ridden him in 18 of his 29 races together, winning 2 of them. That works out to roughly 1 win in every 9 rides, which is a modest return — though it's worth noting that Belsito has done much of his best recent work, the Hamilton wins included, in a very short space of time. He typically competes in the less glamorous end of the racing calendar, winning 2 from 16 races at Class 5 level, but on his favoured track and in the right conditions, he has a habit of making rivals look very ordinary indeed.