Crac De Megaudais

That one career win came at Fakenham on New Year's Day 2025 — now 17 months ago — which gives you a sense of how long this horse has been waiting for a repeat. Fakenham is a small, tight, quirky track in Norfolk, the kind of place that suits certain horses down to the ground, and Crac De Megaudais found something to like about it. The question is whether that was a one-off or a glimpse of what the horse can do when everything clicks. The last six runs read 4-3-–-4-5-3, which is the form of a horse that finishes in the mix without ever quite seizing the moment.

Most of those races have come at Class 5 level — the bread and butter of British racing, where the competition is modest and horses like this are expected to be competitive. Winning just 1 from 9 at that level, roughly 1 in every 9 races, suggests Crac De Megaudais is not quite dominating even the tier it was presumably placed in to thrive. Robert Dunne has ridden this horse five times without a win between them, a partnership that has yet to find its best result.

The yard behind the horse belongs to Tom Gretton, based in Inkberrow in Worcestershire — a trainer who has sent out 13 winners this season, so the operation clearly knows how to win races. The fact that Crac De Megaudais is still racing and was out just yesterday suggests the team believes there is still a performance worth finding. Whether that day arrives soon, or whether this horse quietly adds to its collection of near-misses, remains to be seen.