Rebel's Romance

The list of victories reads like a tour of British racing's most prestigious venues. Newmarket, Goodwood, York, Ascot, Kempton — these are not ordinary tracks on ordinary days. Rebel's Romance won at Goodwood in July 2022, at York in May 2025, and most recently at Ascot in June 2025, before adding another Newmarket win just this week. That is a horse that shows up on the biggest stages and delivers. Winning at four different top-level venues across a four-year stretch takes genuine class and remarkable longevity.

Much of that success has been built alongside jockey William Buick, one of the most respected riders in the sport. The two have formed a formidable partnership — Buick has been aboard for 14 of the horse's 15 races and won 8 of them, a win rate of 57%, or well over half their time together. That kind of consistency between horse and jockey is rare, and it matters. A jockey who knows a horse intimately can get things out of it that a stranger in the saddle simply cannot.

Behind the horse is trainer Charlie Appleby, whose Newmarket yard has sent out 121 winners already this season alone — a staggering number that puts the operation among the most powerful in British racing. Rebel's Romance is, in many ways, the perfect example of what that yard produces: a horse trained to peak at the biggest moments, kept in form across multiple seasons, and pointed at races it can win. Four wins from its last six races, with just one finish outside the top three, tells you this horse is not winding down. It is in the form of its life.