Nickelforce

Over a career spanning 26 races, Nickelforce has won 5 times and finished in the places a further 15 times — meaning it has come home in the top three on 20 of 26 occasions. The win rate sits at roughly 1 in every 5 races (19%), which is a solid return, but the sheer volume of placings is arguably the more remarkable number. This horse almost never runs a stinker. It first broke its duck at Plumpton back in January 2024, and has been adding to that tally steadily ever since.

One curiosity worth flagging is that Nickelforce has raced twelve times at Class 4 level — the bread-and-butter tier of British racing, one step below the top contests — and has yet to win at that grade, drawing a blank across all 12 attempts. Yet it has clearly won at other levels, so this is not a horse that simply cannot win. It may just be that the specific conditions or tracks at Class 4 have not suited, or that it performs better when the race shapes up in a particular way. Either way, it is a quirk that anyone following the horse would keep an eye on.

Harry Bannister is the regular partner in the saddle, riding Nickelforce in 10 of its races and winning twice — a 20% win rate, or 1 in every 5 rides together. That is a productive partnership. Ben Case's yard has been in good nick generally this season, sending out 10 winners, and the Fakenham success this week suggests the yard is in the kind of form where you take their runners seriously.

With Nickelforce currently active and clearly in a rich vein of form, anyone wondering whether to follow a horse through the summer could do a lot worse than keeping this one on their radar.