Optician

Away from Wolverhampton, the picture looks very different. Across 22 races elsewhere, Optician has never won. Not once. That contrast tells you almost everything about how to think about this horse — not as a consistent performer across the board, but as a specialist with a home ground advantage that is genuinely rare. The first Wolverhampton win came in December 2023, and the most recent in December 2024, so the pattern has held across two separate seasons. The overall career record of 4 wins from 33 races — winning roughly 1 in every 8 — looks modest until you realise nearly all the value is concentrated in one place.

The ground matters too. On normal conditions, Optician has won 4 of 18 races, a win rate of 22%, or just over 1 in 5. That is a genuinely solid number at this level, and it lines up with those Wolverhampton wins, since the all-weather surface there tends to ride consistently. There is a version of this horse that performs well; you just need the right combination of venue and conditions to unlock it.

The current moment is complicated. Optician hasn't won in its last 6 races and last tasted victory 18 months ago, which is a long time between wins for a 6-year-old. The partnership with jockey David Allan — 11 races together without a single win — hasn't cracked the code either. Herrington's yard has been in fine form this season, sending out 33 winners, so the team around the horse is clearly doing something right in general. The question is whether Optician can find its way back to Wolverhampton, on decent ground, and remind everyone why that record there is so hard to ignore.