Slade Steel

The headline moment of its career came at Cheltenham on 12 March 2024 — a Class 1 win, meaning one of the top races in Britain. Cheltenham is the sport's most celebrated stage, and horses that win there under the lights of the festival tend to carry that reputation for years. Slade Steel earned it. The first career win had come over a year earlier, at Punchestown in December 2022, but it was Cheltenham that confirmed there was something genuinely special here.

Overall, Slade Steel has won 4 and placed 11 times from just 13 races — that is a win rate of roughly 1 in every 3 races, which is exceptional. More than that, this horse has finished in the top two on nine of its thirteen outings, meaning it almost always turns up and competes. What it hasn't done lately is win: the last six races have brought five second-place finishes and one sixth, with that Cheltenham victory now sitting 25 months in the past. The talent is still there, clearly — you don't finish second five times without being a seriously good horse — but the wins have dried up.

Rachael Blackmore, one of the most celebrated jockeys in the sport, has ridden Slade Steel in six races and won three of them — a 50% win rate together, which is a remarkable partnership by any measure. The trainer is Henry De Bromhead, whose yard in Knockeen, Co Waterdown has sent out 106 winners this season alone. That is a yard operating at the very top of the game, and Slade Steel sits comfortably within it. Last raced just 17 days ago and still active, the question now is straightforward: can this horse find its way back to the winner's enclosure? If it rains, the smart money says yes.