How About No

The most telling number in the file is this: 2 wins from just 5 races over a mile and six furlongs to two miles, a 40% win rate. That is extraordinary by any measure — winning 2 in every 5 races is the kind of record a top trainer would boast about across an entire season, and How About No is doing it in one specific slot on the racecard. The message is simple: get this horse over a proper distance and it becomes a different animal. Over shorter trips, the record drops off sharply, and the pattern is consistent enough to mean something.

Lizzie Quinlan trains the horse from Bolton Mill in Cumbria, a yard that has already sent out 4 winners this season. Regular partner Dylan Browne McMonagle has ridden How About No in 5 of its races, winning 1 of them — a 20% win rate together, which is a solid partnership by any standard. The first career win came at Dundalk in February 2024, and the most recent at Catterick Bridge on New Year's Day 2025 — meaning there is now a 16-month gap since the last victory, with the last 6 runs reading: two non-completions, a fourth, a fifth, a win, and a fifth before that. The recent form, in other words, has gone quiet.

How About No raced just one day ago, so the horse is very much in active training and in the mix. At Class 4 level — solid, competitive races without being among the very top tier — the record reads 1 win from 4 races, a 25% rate that suggests the horse belongs at that level rather than being out of its depth. The priority for the team is obvious: keep finding opportunities over a proper trip, and this horse has a habit of making them count.