Zambezi Fix

The story of Zambezi Fix is really the story of one track. All three of its career wins have come at Chepstow, from 14 races there, which means it wins there at a rate of roughly 1 in every 5 visits — a genuinely remarkable return for a horse with a 1-in-12 record everywhere else. For context, Chepstow is not a soft touch; it regularly hosts competitive Class 3 racing, the level where Zambezi Fix does most of its work. Finding a horse that wins there three times is the equivalent of finding a footballer who always scores at a particular away ground. Something about the place suits it.

When conditions are soft underfoot — a wet, slightly muddy surface — it improves further, winning 2 from 13 races on that type of ground. It is not an enormous sample, but both figures point in the same direction: Chepstow, in winter or early spring conditions. That is precisely when its two most notable wins arrived — February 2023 and April 2024.

The partnership with jockey Robert Williams is the other thread worth pulling. In 12 races together they have won 3 times, which is a win rate of 25%, or 1 in every 4 rides. For a horse whose overall record is 1 in 12, that is a striking difference, and it suggests Williams understands exactly what Zambezi Fix needs.

Trained by Bernard Llewellyn out of a small yard in Fochriw in Mid Glamorgan, Zambezi Fix has not won in its last 6 races, and its most recent victory was over two years ago. But the yard has sent out 10 winners this season, so it is clearly in working order. An 11-year-old horse still racing at Class 3 level, with a record that comes alive at one specific track under one specific jockey — that is not a declining horse, that is a specialist waiting for the right day.