Precious Spartan

Precious Spartan is a three-year-old trained by Patrick Neville, who operates out of Coverham in North Yorkshire and has had a productive season — 27 winners sent out so far. The horse's overall record of 3 wins and 6 places from 20 races, a win rate of roughly 1 in every 7 outings, tells a story of a horse that competes honestly without always finding the top gear. But that overall picture flatters to deceive a little, because once you strip it back to its favourite conditions, the numbers sharpen considerably. On normal ground, over a mile and one to a mile and two, in the lower-tier races where it typically competes, it has won 3 from 11 — closer to 1 in every 3 or 4 attempts. That is a very different horse.

The one puzzle worth noting is the partnership with regular jockey Rowan Scott. In seven races together, they have not yet won. That is not necessarily alarming — plenty of factors influence any individual result — but it is a curious statistic given how capable Precious Spartan has proven itself to be.

Now comes the interesting part. Precious Spartan has not raced in around six months, which means it returns with something to prove but also with some freshness. Its last win was at Ripon in August 2025, and before that it placed respectably. The recent form string — 3-7-9-4-1-6 — shows a winner in there and a couple of rough patches, which is fairly typical for a horse still developing at three. If Precious Spartan turns up at Ripon again, the question almost writes itself: can anything beat a horse that has never been beaten there?