Pearly Squirrel

The bulk of Pearly Squirrel's career has been spent in Class 5 company, which is the bread-and-butter level of British racing — competitive enough, but not the glamour end of the sport. At that level, the record reads 1 win from 11 races, which is roughly 1 in every 11 attempts. The first career win came at Doncaster in July 2025, and the most recent at Wolverhampton in March 2026. That Wolverhampton success was now four months ago, and the last six runs have brought no wins — a sequence that reads 3rd, 12th, 3rd, 5th, 3rd, 4th from most recent back. The one blip was that 12th, which stands out as the exception; otherwise, Pearly Squirrel has been finishing right on the heels of the winner without quite getting there.

That last run, just one day ago, ended in fourth — close again, but not close enough. The horse is trained by David Loughnane, whose yard at Stoke Heath in Shropshire has been in fine form this season with 39 winners sent out. A trainer operating at that kind of volume knows how to place a horse, and Pearly Squirrel's consistent placings suggest it is being targeted carefully rather than thrown in out of its depth. Whether a third career win is coming soon is the question — the recent form says the ability is there, but racing has a habit of making you wait for it.