Ballyfinn

The path to that victory was a long one. One win and three places from eleven races — roughly 1 in every 11 races won — is a modest return on paper, but the recent form tells a more encouraging story. His last six runs read 7-4-4-1-4 working back from the present, which shows a horse that has found its rhythm. The win at Fontwell came right in the middle of that sequence, and he hasn't been disgraced since. He raced again just yesterday, which means Honeyball is keeping him busy and confident.

There's a decent pedigree to the horse, too. Back at the start, before he ever set foot on a racecourse, he finished second in a point-to-point where the winner was subsequently bought by Nicky Henderson — one of the most decorated trainers in the sport — for £150,000. The horse that finished third that day also went on to run well at Punchestown, one of Ireland's most prestigious jumping festivals. In other words, Ballyfinn was rubbing shoulders with some very well-regarded animals early on, which suggests there was always talent there waiting to be unlocked.

His regular jockey Rex Dingle hasn't managed to get him home in front across their seven races together, though that partnership has now seen the horse mature into a winner. The one puzzle in the record is that Ballyfinn has yet to win in the Class 4 races he most often contests — four attempts, no wins — meaning his victory at Fontwell came in a different setting. Whether he can translate that form back into his bread-and-butter grade is the next interesting question for a horse that, at eight years old, finally looks like he's figured out what racing is all about.