Miss Alpilles

Trainer Ed Walker, who operates out of Upper Lambourn in Berkshire and has sent out 76 winners this season alone, was convinced early on that Miss Alpilles had the talent to compete in the Oaks — the premier race in Britain for her age group. Instead, she spent years being, in Walker's own words, "horrifically disappointing." She finally broke her duck at Haydock Park in July 2024, and even then the team drew the wrong conclusion, deciding she needed wet, muddy ground to perform. It took jockey Kieran Shoemark riding her at Ffos Las and reporting that she clearly hated soft ground to make them think again. They switched to fast, dry ground at Goodwood — and she flew.

The payoff came at Newmarket on 25 September 2025, when Miss Alpilles won a Class 1 race, meaning one of the very top races in the country. That is an extraordinary leap for a horse who had spent most of her career competing in Class 4 company, the more everyday level of racing, where she had managed just 1 win from 9 attempts. Her last six races read 5-2-3-1-1-2, with the two wins sitting right in the middle of that sequence — a horse who has genuinely found her form rather than stumbling into a good day.

Shoemark has been the key figure in unlocking her, winning 2 of his 5 rides together, a rate of 40% — extraordinary by any measure when you consider that most top jockeys win around 1 in 8 races across a full season. On normal ground, she has won 2 of her 6 attempts, a rate of roughly 1 in 3, which is a strong return. Walker has now set his sights on the Sagaro Stakes at Ascot, a prestigious staying race, describing her as a "fun mare for staying races." Given everything it took to get here, that might be understating it considerably.