Smart Decision

That yard is Tim Easterby's operation in Great Habton, North Yorkshire, one of the most productive outfits in the country right now. With 138 winners sent out this season alone, Easterby clearly knows how to place a horse where it can win. Smart Decision looks like a fine example of that skill: targeted carefully, put in the right races, and allowed to build a record that rewards patience. The trainer's son, Mr William Easterby, has been in the saddle for five of those runs and the pair have clicked immediately — three wins from five rides together, a 60% win rate that would turn heads in any sport.

The most recent win came at Market Rasen on Boxing Day 2025, roughly three months ago, and Smart Decision hasn't found the winner's enclosure in the six races since. The recent form figures of 5-5-blank-4-2-blank tell a story of a horse placing regularly but not quite getting back to the top. That said, it raced just yesterday, so this is a horse in the thick of a busy campaign rather than one being nursed back to fitness. The blanks in that sequence suggest the occasional below-par run, but finishing second and fourth in between shows it hasn't lost its way entirely.

Smart Decision first won at Doncaster back in November 2024, and has clearly developed well since then across a career that now spans thirteen races. The question now is whether the Easterby team can find the right opportunity to get that winning feeling back — because when this horse hits its level, it wins more often than not.