Thapa Vc

His home territory is the Class 5 level — the bread-and-butter end of the sport, where horses like him compete week in, week out. At that level he has won 9 from 39 races, or nearly 1 in every 4, which shows he knows how to win when the conditions suit. And conditions matter with this horse. On wet or muddy ground he wins 2 from 7 attempts — close to 1 in 3 — and that's a meaningful pattern. Some horses hate getting their feet dirty; Thapa Vc quietly thrives in it.

He is also a genuine course specialist at Bath, which is one of the more unusual tracks in Britain — a long, uphill finish on a hilltop circuit that sorts out horses in a particular way. Two wins from just five races there is a strong record, and his most recent win came at Bath as recently as September 2025. That's only eight months ago, which puts his current run of six races without a win in perspective — he's not finished, he's just waiting for the right day.

Trained by Mark Rimell at a small yard in Leafield, Oxfordshire, Thapa Vc is part of a stable that has sent out 9 winners already this season — a solid return for an operation of that size. Regular partner Rob Hornby has ridden him 16 times and won twice together, winning roughly 1 in every 8, which is a workmanlike but not spectacular partnership. The horse was raced just yesterday, so he is firmly in training and being kept busy.

The profile here is of a horse that knows what he likes — wet ground, the Bath track, the Class 5 level — and when those pieces align, he delivers. He first won back in January 2022 at Wolverhampton and has been a consistent earner since. Not a star, but exactly the kind of dependable, experienced competitor that keeps a small yard ticking over.