- Equinties Newsletter
- Posts
- Equinties - DRF in doubt now
Equinties - DRF in doubt now
BGP Capital
January 30, 2026
Gm, Equinauts
Right, a bit of good old fashioned helping a friend out here. THIS IS NOT A PAID AD.
A friend of ours is launching an online padel shop called SMASH PAD. If you don’t like padel, you’re a weirdo. And if you’ve never played it, do - you’ll f*cking love it.
Smash Pad sill sell premium padel equipment, apparel, and essentials designed to help players perform with confidence, clarity, and purpose — both on and off the court.
The store is launching THIS WEEKEND, so make sure you’re signed up and ready to go.
Please send the link to your friends who like a bit of padel too! Thank you.
Enjoy.
Let’s dive in.
HEADLINE ROUNDUP
LORD ZETLAND PASSES
British horse racing world remembers Lord Zetland today—a Northern racing titan who poured his blood, sweat, and family legacy into the game for decades.
The fourth Marquess of Zetland, Lawrence ‘Mark’ Dundas, died peacefully at home in North Yorkshire last Saturday, January 24, 2026, at the age of 88. Family by his side, it was the quiet close of a chapter that not only shaped Redcar, but left a mark on racing.
Lord Zetland wasn't some distant aristocrat dipping in for the glamour, Mark (as he preferred to be known) took the reins at Redcar in 1981, succeeding his father, and ran the show as chairman and managing director for nearly four decades until stepping down at the end of 2018.
He made Redcar what it is today and is responsible for the creation of Redcar’s famous Two-Year-Old Trophy, launched in 1989 and remains as their biggest payday. The Zetland Gold Cup? That's family heritage too, dating back to 1950, but he kept it front and centre as a highlight on the Northern flat calendar.
Mark also sat on the British Horseracing Board and was former chair of the Thoroughbred Breeders' Association. As an owner-breeder running Zetland Stud up in North Yorkshire, he had horses with trainers like Peter Calver and Keith Reveley. Think MALEK who landed the Scottish Borders National at Kelso in 2005.
Tributes pour in this morning with his friends calling him a "real gentleman," "one of the most important figures in Redcar's history," and a "driving force" who made racing accessible and exciting. John Sanderson, who took over the chair at Redcar, nailed it: the Two-Year-Old Trophy was his brainchild, and it's stood the test of time because he had vision, not just a title.
RELENTLESS
We’re referring to the weather here because just as racing fans were rejoicing yesterday over the good news coming from Leopardstown’s track team that racing was good to go, more rain arrived and it is looking bearish.
Those ‘will it, won’t it (go ahead)’ markets are back open again and they look a little bit different this time around:
There will be an inspection later this afternoon but we imagine the ground staff (and drainage system) are working at less than full capacity, tired for their recent efforts earlier this week.
The DRF is always a big one, we’re really hope it survives.
EL CAIROS SELL OFF
EL CAIROS won with his head in his chest in a Thurles maiden yesterday for Gordon Elliott,
but the market showed it was wasn’t as forgiving as perhaps the last hurdle when EL CAIROS struggled to navigate it.
It’s almost like the poor boy still thinks he’s being trained by Gary Moore and feels almost obliged to f*ck up the last - a common trait in horses from the Moore yard. Ya’ll now what we mean… Gary Moore’s horses hate the last jump!
(The above is based on absolutely no reliable data whatsoever, just the confirmation bias from our memories).
Post-race there was a sell off on his Supreme chances with books giving him away at a bigger 6/1, clearly making a judgement that if he can only just meet the requirements of a maiden, how will he act under the stress of racing’s Olympics.
Do we think that is fair? Well, we think the market was too short on him anyway but we’re now conditioned to horrible pricing so we’ll answer the question based on the drift and in short, yes we do think it’s wrong. We thought we saw a special horse yesterday and his turbo’s in that heavy ground impressed us. Of all the horses that came from the Maxwell dispersal sale, EL CAIROS looked the wonder buy.
With some intense schooling ahead of the Festival, he’ll be right there at the finish…. Proper horse.
TO READ THIS WEEKENDS DRF AND SANDOWN PREVIEWS, SUBSCRIBE BELOW!
