Starlust

The headline win came on 13 July 2024, a Class 1 at York — the very top tier of British racing. He'd already won a Class 2 at the same track just six weeks earlier, in May. Before that, in September 2023, he won a Class 1 at Kempton Park on the all-weather surface. In the space of about ten months, this five-year-old put together a sequence of big-race wins that most horses never get close to.

The wet stuff suits him, too. On soft or muddy ground, Starlust has won 2 from 4 races — a 50% win rate. When conditions fall his way and he gets to York, he becomes a genuinely dangerous horse.

Since that York win in July 2024, however, he hasn't won in six races, and his recent form — a fourth, then nowhere — tells you he's been finding it tough. He's been campaigned at the highest level internationally, including trips to Del Mar and Hong Kong, and trainer Ralph Beckett has been candid about what hasn't worked. In Hong Kong, Starlust was ridden too close to the pace for his liking; at Del Mar in the Breeders' Cup Sprint, the blazing early speed actually suited him perfectly — and Beckett noted afterwards that Rossa Ryan, his regular jockey, was at his very best that day. Ryan has ridden him in 9 of his 21 races, winning just once together, but Beckett's praise suggests the partnership is developing.

Beckett is now pointing Starlust at the Temple Stakes and then the King Charles III at Royal Ascot — two of the most prestigious sprint races in the calendar. He's had a break, is training well, and his trainer says he's optimistic. After 24 months without a win, the question is whether Starlust can recapture what made him so exciting at York. The targets are right. The talent is there. The ground just needs to be on his side.