Call My Bluff stages dramatic Newbury comeback, hailed as inspiration

Call My Bluff turned a recent humiliation into a bruising, emotional reminder that old horses can still deliver when patience holds. The 9-year-old bay gelding, trained by Dominic Ffrench Davis and ridden by John Egan, surged back to the winner’s enclosure in Newbury’s 4.20 cityam.com Handicap on good ground, landing the Class 3 prize by 4½ lengths at 40/1.

The scale of the turnaround gave the race its punch. Only 44 days earlier, Call My Bluff had been beaten 45¼ lengths into ninth of 10 at Southwell on 4 March 2026. Before that, he had run fourth at Nottingham on 15 October 2025 and ninth at Goodwood on 8 June 2025, results that might have sent most nine-year-olds quietly toward the margins. Instead, The Ffrench Connection Racing and Ffrench Davis stayed patient, and the horse responded with the kind of effort that stops a racecard from being just another racecard.

He did it over 2m 110y in a six-runner handicap worth £12,885 to the winner, showing a stronger finishing kick than the odds suggested and a sharper edge than his recent form implied. Before Friday, his lifetime Flat record stood at 25 runs, five wins, four seconds and three thirds. This latest success added another Newbury chapter too, after he had already been placed there in April 2023.

That history matters because Newbury was not just another stop on the calendar. The afternoon also featured the Dubai Duty Free EBF Maiden Stakes, the Bridget 'Confined' Maiden Fillies' Stakes, the Dreweatts Maiden Fillies' Stakes and the Darley EBF Novice Stakes, giving the card a Classic-trials-weekend feel. In that company, a seasoned handicapper like Call My Bluff offered something different from the usual trial chatter: a horse with a back story, a setback, and then a payoff.

The reaction carried beyond the result itself. Racing Post writer Lee Mottershead, who has worked at the paper since 1996, hailed the comeback as inspiration, and it was easy to see why. Call My Bluff, foaled on 15 April 2017 and by Make Believe out of Ocean Bluff (IRE) by Dalakhani (IRE), did not just win a handicap. He reminded everyone that resilience still has a place on a day dominated by forward-looking classics talk.