Blondina

On 22 May 2026, just one day ago, Blondina broke her duck at Pontefract, and the manner of it matters. She has spent most of her career competing at Class 4 level — the bread-and-butter tier of British racing — without getting her head in front, going 0 from 5 in those races. But stretch her out over a longer trip, between one mile six furlongs and two miles, and she is a different animal entirely. Over those distances she has won 1 from 3 races, which works out at 33% — winning roughly 1 in every 3 attempts. That is a significant number, and it tells you that Blondina simply needs time and distance to show her best.

Her recent form confirms the upward curve. Reading her last six runs from most recent back, the sequence goes 1-3-9-9, with two gaps before that. Two finishes well down the field gave way to a third place, and then the win. That is a horse finding her feet in real time, and her trainer Adam Nicol will have noted exactly what clicked.

Nicol operates out of Seahouses in Northumberland, a small yard in every geographical sense, but one that has sent out 26 winners already this season — a genuinely productive haul that suggests the horses leaving that stable are well prepared. Getting a horse to its first win is never straightforward, and doing it with a horse that has taken 14 races to get there requires patience and good horsemanship. The fact that Blondina has arrived there now, racing at the right distance, is a small but satisfying story in itself. Whether she can build on it is the next question worth watching.