Pol Roger

His trainer, Michael Dods, operates out of Piercebridge in County Durham, and this season the yard has been in fine form — 43 winners and counting. Dods is clearly a trainer who knows how to place horses shrewdly, and his most-used jockey on this horse has been Connor Beasley, who has won 3 of their 20 races together — about 1 in every 7 rides, a noticeably better ratio than the horse's overall record and a strong sign of a productive partnership.

The trouble right now is that Pol Roger hasn't won since Ayr back in May 2024 — nearly two years ago — and his last six runs have gone 2-4-9-13-8-8, which tells a clear story: he was threatening to win again, then gradually faded back through the field. Dods has been candid about why. After that Ayr win, the official handicapper raised his weight by 4lb, and then four consecutive runner-up finishes pushed it up by another 7lb — meaning he's now carrying 7lb more than he was when he last won. In horse racing terms, that's the handicapper doing exactly what it's designed to do: make it harder for a horse that keeps finishing well to keep finishing well. Pol Roger is, as his trainer put it plainly, in the handicapper's grip.

The plan is to try something different — moving him to a longer distance, where he might find the handicapper has been a little less aggressive in adjusting his weight. His best results already come at seven furlongs to a mile, where he's won 2 from 9 (roughly 1 in every 4 and a half races), and on normal ground he's won 3 of 18, around 1 in 6. He also raced just yesterday, which suggests the yard aren't sitting on him — they're actively searching for the right opportunity to get him back to winning ways.