Duel Au Soleil

That one win came at Wetherby on 31 October 2025, and while it arrived eight months ago, the recent form suggests the horse has lost none of its enthusiasm. Reading the last six races from most recent backwards — 4th, 3rd, 8th, 2nd, 3rd, 1st — you can see a horse that briefly dipped in form before bouncing back to knocking on the door again. The 8th is the one blip, but on either side of it sits a string of placed efforts that speak to a horse running consistently well.

Callum Pritchard is the regular partner here, and together they have found a rhythm worth noting. Pritchard has ridden the horse in six of its races and was aboard for that Wetherby win — a 17% win rate between them, or 1 in every 6 rides, which is meaningfully above the horse's overall career average. That kind of familiarity between jockey and horse often matters more than people realise.

The trainer is Ben Pauling, based at Naunton in Gloucestershire, and this is a yard in seriously good form — 91 winners already this season, which is a substantial operation firing at full power. Having a horse like Duel Au Soleil sitting on 0 wins from 5 races at Class 4 level will be a source of mild frustration, because the horse is clearly good enough to place at that level but has not yet found a way to win there. The question now is whether Pauling can find the right opportunity to change that. Raced just one day ago, this is a horse right in the middle of its campaign, and with the form it has shown recently, another win does not look far away.