Dance Time

The story of Dance Time is really a story about Southwell. The all-weather track in Nottinghamshire is where the career began — first win there in September 2023 — and it has become a genuine home from home. Three wins from eight races at that track works out at 37%, which is an extraordinary ratio. To put that in context, most racehorses win fewer than one in ten races at any single course. Finding a track that suits you that well is a bit like a footballer who only ever scores at one particular ground: you keep going back.

Normal ground is another key ingredient. All six career wins have come on standard conditions, and at 33% — six wins from 18 races in those conditions — Dance Time is essentially a different animal when the ground is right. Put it on wet or muddy ground and the results tell a different story entirely.

David Loughnane, who trains the yard out of Stoke Heath in Shropshire, described Dance Time in the spring of 2024 as something of an enigma — a horse who defied logic by performing so well young before bulking up considerably. He called her a "bull of a filly" and flagged that she was very well-placed in the weights, suggesting there was more to come. That assessment looks well-founded: the last win came at Wolverhampton in November 2025, six months ago, and the recent run of form — placings and near-misses rather than victories — suggests the winning thread is there, just waiting to snap back into place.

Regular rider Laura Pearson has been in the saddle for eight of these races together, winning one, but the partnership clearly keeps being tried, which says something about faith in the combination. The current run of six races without a win will not concern anyone who has followed this horse closely. The profile is clear: get Dance Time to Southwell, on decent ground, in the right class of race, and it becomes genuinely dangerous.