Fighting Poet

At eight years old, Fighting Poet has now run 39 times and won on just three occasions, a win rate of around 8%, or roughly 1 in every 13 races. That is a tough record to dress up, but the detail inside it tells a more interesting story. On dry, fast ground, the numbers improve sharply — 2 wins from 9 races, meaning it wins roughly 1 in every 4 times conditions suit it. Add the Brighton factor on top of that, and you start to see a horse that needs a very specific set of circumstances to show its best, but genuinely delivers when they come together.

The most recent win came at Brighton on 19 August 2025, almost exactly a year after the first career win at the same track. Sean Bowen, who has partnered Fighting Poet in 5 of its races and won once — a rate of 1 in 5 — was involved in that partnership when the combination clicked. Since then, the last six runs read 8-6-13-4-9-9, which is a sequence of near-misses and disappointing efforts. The horse raced just one day ago, so the yard are clearly still rolling the dice.

Richard Phillips runs a small, quiet operation from Adlestrop — the yard has sent out just 3 winners this entire season — and Fighting Poet sits at the lowest level of the sport, Class 6, where it has recorded all three of its wins. That is the entry-level tier of British racing, but winning even there requires effort and ability, and this horse has shown it can do it. The formula is simple enough: get it to Brighton, give it dry ground, and run it at a mile to a mile and a quarter. Do all three at once, and Fighting Poet has shown it knows exactly what to do.