Knicks

Those two wins tell an interesting story on their own. The first came at Nottingham in September 2023, and it was no ordinary debut victory — it was a Class 2 race, one of the better races in Britain. For a horse to announce itself at that level is genuinely noteworthy. The second win came at Chester in May 2024, and that was 25 months ago now. Since then, Knicks has gone 0 from its last 6, with recent finishes of 14th, 3rd, 9th, 6th, 7th, and 5th — signs of a horse that can get involved without quite finding the winning gear.

What is puzzling is where Knicks tends to race most of the time. The majority of its runs have come at Class 5 level — the lower end of the scale — and it has not won a single one of those 12 races. Zero from twelve. For a horse that has already beaten better horses in a Class 2 race, that is a strange record and worth raising an eyebrow at.

Joanna Mason has ridden Knicks more than anyone, partnering it in 11 of its 29 races and winning once together — that Nottingham Class 2. It is a solid working partnership, even if the wins have dried up. The training operation behind the horse is Michael and David Easterby's yard in Sheriff Hutton, North Yorkshire, which has sent out 55 winners already this season — a busy, productive stable that clearly knows what it is doing.

Knicks raced just yesterday, so this is a horse very much in the thick of things. The question hanging over it is whether it can rediscover the form that made it competitive at a high level two years ago, or whether that Nottingham afternoon remains the high watermark of a career that has quietly drifted since.