Blizzard Of Oz

His partnership with Paul Townend, one of the most respected jump jockeys in Ireland, is also worth noting. In five races together, they have won three — that is 3 wins from 5, a 60% success rate that tells you Townend knows this horse and this horse knows Townend. After winning at Thurles in March this year, Townend was candid about what he had seen: Blizzard Of Oz still made a couple of untidy jumps, nearly got into trouble at the second-last, but dug deep when it mattered. "It's a sign of him being in good form," Townend said — the kind of comment that suggests a horse rediscovering its best self rather than one simply going through the motions.

That Thurles win, three months ago, came off the back of an earlier performance at Wexford that the Mullins team were quietly pleased about. The horse Blizzard Of Oz beat that day, Rocky's Diamond, was described as a "very good horse" — which puts the victory in context. Winning is one thing; winning against genuine quality is another. Mullins himself has mentioned the Coral Gold Cup at Newbury — one of the marquee long-distance chases of the British season — as a possible target, which says something about where the team believe this horse's ceiling might be.

The yard sending out 220 winners this season is the backdrop against which all of this happens. Mullins runs one of the most powerful racing operations in the world, so a horse needs to be doing something right to stay on the radar. Blizzard Of Oz, last active just a day ago, very much is.