Sweet William

The career story is one of steady progression towards the biggest prizes. The first win came at Doncaster in July 2023, followed quickly by two Class 2 victories at Newbury and Goodwood that same summer. By 2024, Sweet William was winning Class 1 races — the very best races in Britain — at Sandown in May and then at Doncaster again in September. Twelve months later, in September 2025, it won at Doncaster once more. That makes three wins from just four races at that particular track, which is the kind of record that makes trainers plan their whole season around a single venue. Most horses never find a true home track; Sweet William found one, and keeps going back to prove the point.

The trainer team behind this horse is John and Thady Gosden, one of the most successful yards in the country, based in Newmarket. With 140 winners already this season alone, this is an operation that knows how to place a horse and peak it at the right moment. Regular jockey Robert Havlin has been aboard for all seven wins from 23 rides together — winning roughly 3 in every 10 times they've partnered, which is a strong record at this level.

Conditions matter too. On slightly wet ground, Sweet William has won 2 from 4 races — a 50% win rate that suggests the horse actually improves when the ground softens. At the top level of Class 1 racing, it wins roughly 1 in every 5 attempts — 3 wins from 14 races — which sounds modest until you remember how ferociously competitive those races are. Recent form reads 3-2-1-2-1-2, a sequence of nothing but podium finishes, and the horse last won just seven weeks ago at Ascot. At seven years old, and with form this sharp, Sweet William is not winding down — it is very much still the real thing.