Hedge Fund

Both of those wins came in a narrow two-week window back in the autumn of 2023 — first at Wolverhampton on 1 September, then at Ffos Las on 14 September. That was 33 months ago now, and Hedge Fund hasn't visited the winner's enclosure since. Recent form makes for fairly grim reading: the last six runs show finishes of tenth, seventh, eleventh, sixth, third, and a blank, with only that third-place effort offering any real encouragement. The horse raced just yesterday, so it's clearly still being kept busy.

The majority of Hedge Fund's career has been spent in Class 4 races — a solid middle tier, not the easiest company but far from the top of the sport. In ten attempts at that level, the record reads zero wins from ten. That's a striking number. It suggests a horse that is fairly assessed at that grade but simply can't find the extra gear needed to get to the front. The places and near-misses are there; the wins aren't.

Regular jockey Lewis Edmunds has ridden Hedge Fund 13 times and won once together — a win rate of roughly 1 in 13. That single victory is one of the horse's only two career wins, so the partnership has seen the best and the worst of it. Trainer Michael Appleby, based in Oakham in Rutland, is clearly no stranger to winners — his yard has sent out 79 this season alone, which is a genuinely impressive volume of winners and marks Appleby out as one of the more productive trainers in the country. Hedge Fund, it's fair to say, has not been among the contributors to that total. With a horse this consistent at finishing just outside the places, you sense the team keeps running it in hope rather than expectation — but the results suggest a long wait ahead.