The Resdev Scholar

Trained by Michael & David Easterby out of their Sheriff Hutton yard in North Yorkshire — a team that has been in fine form this season, sending out 55 winners — the horse made its mark early, winning for the first time at Musselburgh in October 2025. That debut victory was followed by another at Doncaster in November, and the Easterby yard clearly identified something worth persisting with. Those two wins came quickly enough together to suggest a horse that was hitting its stride.

The most interesting number in the file belongs to Joanna Mason. When Mason is in the saddle, The Resdev Scholar wins 3 times from 7 races together — that's 43%, or nearly 3 in every 7 rides. That is a striking partnership by any measure. For context, plenty of good horses don't win 43% of their races across an entire career. Whatever the connection between horse and rider, the combination clearly works.

The trickier part of the picture is the recent run of form. The last six races read 16-3-3-4-2-1 from most recent backwards — meaning the horse has gone from a win, to a second, to a pair of thirds, and then two very modest efforts. That's a gradual slide in the wrong direction, and the last win came at Doncaster back in November, now seven months ago. At Class 4 level — the bread-and-butter tier of British racing, not the glamour end — the horse has only managed 1 win from 7 races at that grade, a rate of 14%, or roughly 1 in 7. That's below what you'd hope for given the overall record.

Still, The Resdev Scholar raced just one day ago, which means this is a horse very much in active campaign. The Easterby yard clearly has faith in it, the Mason partnership remains a genuine weapon, and three-year-olds often take time to find their best. Whether the form reversal comes sooner or later is the question worth watching.