Rajeko

The wins themselves are spread wide apart. Rajeko first got its head in front at Windsor back in June 2024, then went nearly seven months before winning again at Chelmsford in December of the same year. Since then? Nothing. The last six races tell a story of steady decline: a win, then a second, then four finishes deep in the pack — tenth, fourteenth, thirteenth, tenth. That is a horse that has gone cold, and gone cold at exactly the wrong time.

Part of the problem may be ambition. Rajeko has been tried three times in some of the top races in Britain — Class 1 level — and has not won any of them. Zero from three at that grade. That is not a disgrace; those races attract the very best horses, and simply being entered says something about what the team at Michael Bell's yard believes Rajeko is capable of. But it does suggest the horse is more comfortable when the competition drops down a notch.

Bell himself has had a productive season, sending out 44 winners from his Newmarket base, so the training operation is clearly in good health. Rajeko raced just one day ago, so it is very much an active campaign — there is no suggestion of injury or a long break to explain the dip in form. The question is whether the horse that won at Chelmsford on a December evening can find its way back to that version of itself, or whether those two wins now sit as the high-water mark of a career that has quietly plateaued. Given the recent string of tenth-plus finishes, the next run will tell us a great deal about which way this one is heading.