Cougar

The most striking thing about Cougar right now is his recent form. After a rough patch — finishing 12th and 7th in back-to-back races — he rattled off two wins in a row, before dropping back to fifth in his last two outings. He raced just yesterday, so this is a horse very much in the middle of a campaign. That mid-season dip in form after a winning run is worth watching; plenty of horses need a bit of time to find their rhythm again after a peak.

One thing that genuinely sets Cougar apart is how he performs on wet or muddy ground. In those conditions he has won 2 of just 4 races — that is a 50% win rate, which is extraordinary. For context, most good horses win somewhere between 20% and 30% of their races in ideal conditions. Finding a horse that wins half its races in any set of conditions is rare, and it tells you that when the weather turns and the ground gets soft, Cougar becomes a very different, much more dangerous proposition.

His most trusted jockey is Mohammed Tabti, who has ridden him 9 times and won on 2 of those occasions — roughly 1 in every 4 or 5 rides together. That is a meaningful partnership worth noting, particularly if Tabti is booked on a wet day. Cougar's last win came at Hamilton Park in September 2025, and his career stretches all the way back to a first victory at The Curragh in June 2022 — a track with a big reputation in Irish racing, which hints that he arrived with some promise.

One note of caution: at the level he most often competes — Class 4, which sits in the middle tier of British racing — he has yet to win in 8 attempts. His wins have come elsewhere, which suggests he finds his level a tough nut to crack. A drop in class, combined with a wet forecast, might be exactly what brings out the best in him again.