Ombudsman

The horse has won twice at Class 1 level, including a victory at York just weeks ago in August. More striking still is its dominance at Ascot, where it has won three of four races at the track — a rate that most horses never come close to achieving. It won there again this week, on 17 October, which means Ombudsman is in the form of its life right now.

William Buick has been the jockey for most of these victories, riding the horse in six races and winning on four of those occasions, a 67 percent partnership rate that speaks to how well the two work together. The horse is trained by John & Thady Gosden at their Newmarket yard, a stable that has sent out 140 winners this season and clearly knows how to get the best out of top-class horses. Ombudsman started its career at Newmarket in June 2024 and has been climbing ever since, but it is the last few weeks that have truly defined it — winning at the biggest meetings and doing so with the kind of frequency that separates good horses from genuinely elite ones.