Our Girl Sal

Look at her last six races and you see a horse that has come alive: two wins, two fifth-place finishes, and only one genuinely poor run in the mix. She won at Kelso in May 2025, then backed that up with a win at Perth just this week — her most recent race was only a day ago. For a horse who had spent most of her career knocking on the door, that kind of back-to-back form in the same season is the sort of thing that makes a trainer sit up and take notice.

The trainer in question is Paul Robson, who operates out of South Hazelrigg in Northumberland. It's a small yard by the standards of the sport, but they've sent out 7 winners already this season — a solid return that suggests Robson knows exactly what he's doing with horses at this level. Our Girl Sal competes mainly at Class 5, which is the bread-and-butter level of jump racing in Britain, and she's won 1 from 3 at that grade — a win rate of 1 in 3, which is genuinely strong.

One thing that ties both wins together is the ground. Our Girl Sal has won 2 of her 6 races on normal conditions — that's 1 in every 3 races when the ground suits her, compared to a much leaner overall record. That's not a coincidence. When conditions are right, this horse performs; when they're not, she tends to find little. Any punter watching her next race would do well to check the forecast first.

At 8, she's not young, but she's clearly in the form of her life right now. Two wins in quick succession at two different tracks, a trainer in decent shape, and a clear preference that the yard can plan around — Our Girl Sal might be unfashionable, but she's currently one of the more interesting horses running at her level.