Due To Henry

His trainer Eve Johnson Houghton, whose yard in Blewbury, Oxfordshire has sent out 42 winners already this season, is admirably straightforward about it. He won at Windsor and Newbury on soft ground last year, she says, and they're simply waiting for rain. It sounds almost comic — a horse sitting in a stable in Oxfordshire while his team study weather forecasts — but it reflects a very real truth about horse racing. Some horses just have a gear that only engages in certain conditions, and the smart play is to wait for them rather than run the horse into the ground proving he can't win on a dry track.

His last victory came at Newbury on 20 September 2024, now almost 21 months ago. Before that, his first win arrived at Lingfield Park in June of the same year, which means all three of his career wins were packed into a roughly three-month window — after which the ground dried out and the wins stopped. Recent form reads 3-5-2-10-13-4, which tells you he's been competitive without threatening to win; there's enough in those placed efforts to suggest he's in reasonable nick, just waiting for conditions to suit. He raced just one day ago, so he's clearly being kept active in the hope the weather breaks.

Regular jockey Charles Bishop has yet to get him to the winner's enclosure in five attempts together. That's not necessarily a damning statistic — if those rides have come on fast, dry ground, the partnership simply hasn't had the right conditions to show what it can do.

Due To Henry is the kind of horse that rewards patience. When the clouds gather and the ground softens up, he's a two-from-three proposition in those conditions. The wait for that next win might hinge entirely on the British weather — which, in fairness, is rarely in short supply.