Kamsinas

The highlight of his career came at Haydock Park in November 2023, when he won a Class 1 — one of the top races in Britain — and Fergal O'Brien, his Gloucestershire trainer, was clearly smitten. "I love the way he hit the line," O'Brien said afterwards, adding that the horse doesn't even look like a two-miler at home but was electric on the track that day. O'Brien called him a "little pocket rocket" with an astonishing will to win — the kind of quality you can't manufacture. Kamsinas backed it up with a Class 2 win at Aintree in October 2024, confirming he is not just a one-occasion wonder. O'Brien's yard has sent out 90 winners this season, so this is a competitive operation, and Kamsinas clearly holds a special place in it.

The ground matters enormously with this horse. On slightly soft conditions he has won 3 of his 7 races — that is 43%, nearly 1 in every 2. Get him on wet but not waterlogged ground and he becomes a different proposition. O'Brien has noted that bottomless ground cost him in the Aintree Grade 1, and quick ground in the Betfair was too sharp — so the window is real, but when conditions align, he delivers.

His regular jockey Jonathan Burke has ridden him in 8 races together and won just once, which hints that Kamsinas can be a complicated ride. The team's approach at Kempton — drop him in, let him hunt around — backfired slightly when he went to sleep, yet he still toughed it out. That is the character of the horse: even on an off day, he competes.

He has not won in his last six races and his most recent effort, just yesterday, produced a third place. At nine years old, Class 1 wins may be behind him — he has won only 1 from 7 at that level. But O'Brien is clearly not done with him yet, and neither, it seems, is Kamsinas.