Our Absent Friends

Tristan Davidson trains out of Irthington in Cumbria, a small yard that has punched above its weight this season with 21 winners. Our Absent Friends is very much a northern racing horse, and its two wins at Newcastle — the first back in October 2022, the most recent as recently as December 2025 — suggest the track suits it well. That latest win came just five months ago, so despite not winning in the last six races, this isn't a horse drawing on distant memories.

The most striking number in the file is the ground record. On wet or slightly soft ground, Our Absent Friends has won 2 from 5 races in each category — a 40% win rate in both cases. To put that in perspective, its overall win rate at Class 5 level, where it races most often, is just 7%, or 2 wins from 29 races. The gap between those two figures is enormous, and it tells you something important: when the ground is wet, this horse transforms. On fast, dry ground it's a different proposition entirely.

Jason Hart is the most regular partner, riding it 16 times for 2 wins — roughly 1 in every 8 rides together, which tracks closely with the overall career average. The recent run of six races without a win includes a second place and a third, so the form isn't desperate, just slightly stuck. It raced just yesterday, which means the team clearly think there's more to come. Given what the ground record says, the smart money is on watching what the weather does next.