James McHenry

His best form comes at distances of seven furlongs to a mile, where he has won 2 from 8 races — a 25% win rate that suggests a horse who genuinely knows his job when the distance suits. His first win came at Ripon in April 2023, and Bethell has spoken warmly about how well he developed over the following winter, with wins at both Ripon and Haydock in the season that followed. Those victories earned him a 12lb rise in the weights — the handicapper's way of saying he'd improved significantly — which pushed him up into Class 2 company, some of the best races in Britain. That step up has been the challenge: he hasn't won in any of his 9 attempts at that level, though finishing in the top four in his last two races shows he's far from disgraced.

Bethell ran him in the Silver Bowl at Haydock to test how far he'd progressed, but a slow start forced jockey Callum Rodriguez to use more energy earlier than planned. Rodriguez is very much his regular partner — they've worked together in 16 races, producing all 3 of his career wins, a 19% win rate together that's meaningfully better than his overall record. After a run at Newmarket, Bethell was philosophical, noting that James McHenry had been beaten by a better-placed rival on the day, and that there was nothing to be ashamed of. That's the honest reality of a horse competing at this level: you can run well and still lose.

What makes the next chapter interesting is where Bethell thinks this horse could go. After the Haydock run, he floated the idea of stepping him up to a mile and a quarter, or at least trying a genuinely stiff mile — and Royal Ascot, specifically the Britannia, had been in the trainer's mind since the start of the season. He raced just yesterday, so the immediate future is uncertain, but a yard that has sent out 62 winners this season clearly knows how to place a horse. James McHenry hasn't won for 25 months, but the team around him sound anything but ready to give up.