Priapos

Start with the most eye-catching stat: Priapos has won 3 of his last 6 races, including a victory at Carlisle just this week. That is a horse in seriously good form, the kind of run that turns casual observers into interested followers. His recent sequence reads 1-1-2-1-7-4 going backwards in time, and that back-to-back-to-back winning burst near the top is exactly what you want to see. He is trained by Phillip Makin at Easingwold in North Yorkshire — a yard that has sent out 9 winners already this season, so the whole operation is in good shape right now.

Here is where it gets odd, though. Priapos has run 10 times at Class 4 level — the bread-and-butter tier of British racing, neither elite nor lowly — and has not won once from those 10 attempts. Yet he has clearly been winning somewhere, which suggests he finds his best form when dropped slightly in class or placed in the right spot. His trainer seems to have cracked the code recently. The horse also has an interesting relationship with his most regular jockey, Rossa Ryan, who has ridden him 5 times without a single win. That is not necessarily anyone's fault — horses and jockeys can simply not click — but it is notable that the winning has been happening with other riders in the saddle.

What does suit him is straightforward: normal ground and a trip of seven furlongs to a mile. On standard conditions he has won 2 of just 4 races, a 50% record that is genuinely impressive and tells you the team knows exactly what they are looking for when they enter him. His career began with a first win at Windsor back in June 2024, and he has been building steadily since. Having raced just yesterday, he is as current and active as it gets — a horse very much in the middle of his story, not at the end of it.