Max Mayhem

The April 2023 win at Kempton was Max Mayhem's first career victory, and the team came back seven months later and did it again at the same course. Jockey Daniel Muscutt was candid about the plan afterwards — the previous trainer had identified the race months in advance, brought the horse to peak fitness at exactly the right moment, and it paid off. That kind of patient targeting is not luck. It is horsemanship, and Max Mayhem was the willing accomplice.

There is another layer here: Max Mayhem is particularly effective on wet or muddy ground. From five races on those conditions, he has won twice — a 40% win rate, or 2 in every 5, which is extraordinary when you consider he wins just 1 in 9 overall. Put him in the mud and he becomes a different animal.

His third win came at Meydan in Dubai in March 2025, which explains quite a lot about where his career has gone since. Trainer George Baker — based at Epsom Downs — acquired him after that win specifically for a syndicate looking to have some fun racing in Bahrain, and paid 28,000 guineas to do so. Baker describes himself as quietly excited, noting the horse has already shown he handles fast, dry ground too, which matters for racing in that part of the world. Everything about the plan seems deliberate and well-matched.

The honest caveat is that Max Mayhem has not won in his last six races, and the recent form — finishing seventh, sixth, ninth and tenth in four of those — is modest. He ran just yesterday, so he is very much still active. At 8 years old, he is not getting younger, but he has already given his owners two top-level days out at Kempton and a win in Dubai. For a syndicate horse bought for enjoyment, that is already a decent return.