Chifa

Chifa is a nine-year-old trained by Ed de Giles at his yard in Ledbury, Herefordshire, a setup that has sent out eight winners already this season. The horse has raced 46 times in total, winning 9 and finishing in the places a further 20 times — so in nearly two-thirds of all its races, it has come home with something. That career-wide win rate of roughly 1 in every 5 races is solid, but at Wolverhampton specifically, it becomes something else entirely. The track clearly suits the way Chifa moves and races, and at this stage of a long career, that kind of reliable affinity with a particular venue is genuinely valuable.

The horse also has a strong preference for normal ground conditions — not too wet, not too dry — and has won 7 of 20 races on that surface, a rate of 35%, or better than 1 in 3. That is a meaningful stat: it tells you the conditions matter as much as the track. When Wolverhampton and normal ground align, the combination has been close to unbeatable for this horse.

Most of those wins have come at the lower end of the racing ladder, where Chifa competes most often, winning 6 of 25 races at that level. Jockey Trevor Whelan has been the regular partner, riding to 4 wins from 15 races together — winning roughly 1 in every 4 rides, which is a strong return. The current form makes encouraging reading too: two wins from the last six races, with a seventh-place finish and a second also in that stretch. Chifa raced just yesterday, which means this horse is fit, active, and still very much doing the job. At nine years old, that counts for a lot.