Captain Pickles

The turnaround started at Wolverhampton on 30 January 2026, and that track has become a real home from home. Captain Pickles has won 2 of its 5 races there — a 40% record at a single venue — which is the kind of number that makes trainers pencil it in whenever Wolverhampton appears on the calendar. The most recent win came just this week, on 30 March, meaning this horse raced yesterday and won. It does not get more current than that.

Most of Captain Pickles' career has been spent at Class 6, which is the entry-level end of British racing. A 13% win rate there — 2 wins from 15 races — is honest but unspectacular. What stands out, though, is what happens when the trip stretches out to between a mile and one furlong and a mile and two furlongs: at that range, it has won 2 from 4, a remarkable 50% record. That is a horse that finds its best form when given room to settle and build. On normal ground, the numbers improve sharply too — 4 wins from 12 races, or 1 in every 3, compared to nothing on wet or fast extremes.

The yard behind Captain Pickles is the Garstang operation run by Tony Culhane and Stella Barclay, a partnership that has sent out 6 winners already this season. That is a yard in decent nick, and a horse on a three-race winning streak gives them every reason to be confident heading into the next few weeks. The question now is whether Captain Pickles can step up in class and maintain this form, or whether the current run represents a horse peaking at its natural level. Either way, right now, it is the most in-form horse they have.