Taygar

At Ayr specifically, Taygar has won twice from five races, a win rate of 40 percent that stands out sharply against her overall record. That second Ayr win came in July 2025, and it reveals something crucial about how she operates. Trainer Michael Dods, based at Piercebridge in County Durham, explained afterward that Taygar is "tricky" — she'll go down early in a race but accelerates when she chooses to, not when you'd necessarily want her to. On that particular day, jockey Danny Tudhope had to send her forward earlier than ideal because she'd settled so far back, yet she still found enough to win well. The ground was soft, which mattered enormously: Taygar has won two of her last three races on slightly soft ground, a 67 percent win rate that suggests she genuinely prefers the going a little wet underfoot.

The problem is that Taygar hasn't won since that July day — 16 months ago. Her last six races have yielded a fifth, a 12th, a second, two ninths and a sixth. Paul Mulrennan, her most frequent partner, has ridden her nine times and won once. She typically races in lower-class competitions where the opposition is modest, yet even there she wins only 1 in 13 races. What keeps Taygar racing is exactly what Dods suggested: finding soft ground and finding Ayr. Without both, she is simply a mid-field horse. With both, she is capable of winning. That's her story.