Qitaal

Trained by Charlie Johnston at Middleham Moor in North Yorkshire — a yard that has sent out 131 winners already this season, so clearly no shortage of ability in the stable — Qitaal is a regular face in Class 2 company, some of Britain's better races. The catch is that it has never won at that level from 14 attempts. That is not a damning verdict; it means Qitaal is competitive enough to keep being entered against good horses, but honest enough to tell you exactly where its ceiling sits. Finishing in the top three across its last six races is actually a decent run of form — just not one that ends with a trophy.

Joe Fanning partners the horse most often, and the numbers between them are modest — 1 win from 13 races together, roughly 1 in every 13. But Fanning is an experienced hand, and a horse that places as reliably as Qitaal is not one you abandon lightly.

The most telling stat in the whole profile is what happens when the ground gets soft. On wet or muddy ground, Qitaal has won 2 from 5 races — that is 40%, or two wins in every five attempts. Compare that to an overall win rate of just 1 in every 12 or 13 races and the picture becomes very clear: when conditions suit, this horse is transformed. Its last win came at Chester in September 2024, now 22 months ago, and finding the right combination of track, conditions, and class has proven elusive since. That first career win came at Nottingham back in October 2021, and the horse has been a fixture on the circuit ever since.

Raced just yesterday and still active, Qitaal is not done yet. The yards that keep campaigning a horse at this age and level do so for a reason — and if the rain comes down and the ground softens up, it would be foolish to write Qitaal off entirely.