Our Absent Friends

The most interesting thing about Our Absent Friends is what happens when the weather turns. On soft ground, this horse wins 2 from 5 races — that's 40%. On genuinely wet, muddy ground, the same again: 2 from 5, also 40%. Those are extraordinary numbers. To put it in context, the horse's overall win rate is 14%, so when conditions get testing underfoot, something clicks and the performance level roughly triples. If you ever see rain in the forecast and Our Absent Friends in the race card, pay attention.

Most of the career has been spent at Class 5 level — the bread-and-butter end of the sport, where the competition is modest but the fields are competitive and winning is never guaranteed. At that level the record reads 2 wins from 29 races, or about 1 in every 14, which is honest but unspectacular. The win this week at Catterick Bridge on 15 July 2026 is a reminder, though, that the horse is still very much in form at eight years old — an age when many have long since retired.

Trainer Tristan Davidson operates out of Irthington in Cumbria, a small northern yard that has punched out 21 winners this season — a healthy tally that suggests a stable in good nick. Regular jockey Jason Hart has ridden the horse in 16 races for 2 wins, a partnership that has been ticking along at roughly 1 win from every 8 rides together. Not prolific, but Our Absent Friends first won back in October 2022 at Newcastle, and the fact that horse and yard are still finding winners together nearly three years later says something about how well this animal has been managed. Some horses fade quietly. This one keeps turning up.