Cadarn

What makes Cadarn genuinely compelling is what happens when conditions suit. On fast, dry ground, the record reads 2 wins from 3 races — a 67% success rate that is simply extraordinary. Most horses win somewhere between 10 and 20% of their races across a career; Cadarn on a quick surface is operating at a completely different level. Add to that a preference for distances around 7 furlongs to a mile, where the record is 3 wins from 6 races — exactly half — and you have a horse whose the yard clearly know where to place him to maximum effect.

Redcar appears to be a particular happy hunting ground. Two wins from just 3 visits there is the kind of course record that makes trainers sit up and take notice, and Kevin Ryan was already talking optimistically about Cadarn back in April 2025, describing promising home work that spring and a belief the horse had matured and was ready to deliver. That confidence proved well-founded: the first career win came at Redcar that same month, and the most recent win arrived at York on 27 June 2026 — just three weeks ago — keeping the horse bang in form and clearly thriving at the moment.

Ryan's yard has sent out 45 winners already this season, which is the mark of a genuinely busy, well-organised operation. With form figures reading 3-1-14-5-13-4 over the last six races — a win, a runner-up, and a couple of wobbles mixed in — Cadarn looks like a horse who can run hot and cold, but whose best is very good indeed. The one slight puzzle is his record in the better-quality Class 5 races, where he has managed 0 wins from 4 attempts. Step him down in class, find him a dry summer track, and put him over seven furlongs, however, and this is a horse worth watching very closely.