Madame De Sevigne

Both of her wins have come at distances between seven furlongs and a mile, where she has won 2 of her 16 races at those trips — a 12% win rate, or roughly 1 in 8. That might not sound dramatic, but it tells you something useful: she needs a proper test of stamina rather than a flat sprint, and when conditions suit, she is capable of getting the job done. Her first win came at Leicester in July 2024, and she backed it up with a second victory at Newmarket in October of the same year — a result that would have pleased the yard considerably, given that Newmarket is effectively their home track.

She is trained by John Butler at Newmarket, a yard that has sent out 39 winners already this season, so this is not a team short of confidence or horses in form. When Oisin Murphy has been in the saddle — five times in total — she has won once, a 20% win rate, which is meaningfully better than her overall record and suggests the pairing brings something out in her.

The honest part of the story is that she has not won in six races, and her recent form reads as largely disappointing — a third place being the only bright spot across those six runs. She is competing most often at Class 4 level, which sits in the middle tier of British racing, and has won just 1 of her 11 races at that grade. She raced just yesterday, so she is very much an active runner rather than a horse being rested through a rough patch.

At five years old, Madame De Sevigne is still relatively young and has time to add to her tally. The combination of a proven course win at Newmarket, a trainer in strong form, and a jockey who has her measure makes it easy to understand why the team keeps running her. Whether another win is coming is the question — but the ingredients are not entirely absent.