La Quarite

That one win did finally come at Newton Abbot in July 2025, which makes it both the highlight of the career and, given La Quarite is only five years old, hopefully not the final chapter. Newton Abbot is a tight, turning track in Devon that suits certain types of horse — ones who travel smoothly and don't need a long straight to wind up. Whether La Quarite has a particular affinity for the place or simply caught the right race on the right day, it's worth noting.

The recent form is genuinely encouraging, though. Reading the last six runs from most recent backwards — 2, 4, 5, 3, 1, 2 — you can see a horse that won, then placed, then drifted a little, then came back to form. That's not the profile of a horse going backwards. The problem is the 201-day gap since that last run, which is the best part of seven months off the track. Horses can come back fresh and ready to go, or they can need a run or two to find their rhythm again. At a 5% win rate across 20 races — roughly 1 win in every 20 outings — there's no history of bouncing back from breaks with a bang.

Trainer Mickey Bowen operates out of Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire and has had a productive season — 46 winners is a serious body of work for a yard operating largely at this level, suggesting Bowen knows how to place his horses and get the most from them. The challenge is that jockey Danny McMenamin, who has partnered La Quarite nine times, is still looking for that first win together. Nine rides, zero wins is a combination that hasn't clicked yet, though La Quarite's record means no single jockey has had an easy time of it.

Competing mostly in Class 5 races — the bread-and-butter level of the sport — La Quarite has won just once in 14 attempts at that tier. For a five-year-old returning from a long break, the target will simply be to recapture that July form and remind everyone the winner's enclosure is not entirely out of reach.