First Principle

The most revealing number in First Principle's record is the one attached to a specific distance: at a mile and one furlong to a mile and two furlongs, this horse has won 4 of 8 races, a 50% win rate. Winning half your races at a particular trip is not a coincidence — it means the horse has found its optimum distance, the point where its engine and its stamina meet perfectly. It also shows up best on normal ground conditions, winning 2 of 4 races (50%) in those circumstances, which in Britain means there are plenty of opportunities to exploit through the year.

Trained by William Haggas at Newmarket, First Principle is in exceptional hands. Haggas's yard has sent out 170 winners already this season — a figure that reflects an operation operating at genuine scale and quality. Getting the best from a horse at Class 2 level is no accident, and the fact that First Principle competes regularly at that standard, winning 1 of 4 races there (25%), tells you this is not a horse padding its record against weak opposition.

The recent form figures — 12-6-17-11-1-2, read from most recent backwards — tell an honest story. The run two races ago, finishing second, looked like a horse coming back to itself after a pair of disappointing efforts. That was followed by a win at Wolverhampton in March 2026, but it has been four months since that victory, and the last two outings have produced a sixth and a twelfth — numbers that suggest First Principle may currently be working through a dip in form. The career first began with a win at Kempton Park in December 2024, and the horse has already added a Class 2 success at Southwell since then, so the quality is undeniably there. Whether the form that produced those wins returns soon is the interesting question — and with a trainer of Haggas's calibre, it would be unwise to give up on this horse just yet.