Bonito Cavalo

The seven-year-old built his reputation quickly. His first win came at Newcastle in January 2024, and he kept rolling from there, picking up his most recent victory at the same track in March 2024. At that point he looked like a horse on the rise — progressive, consistent, exciting. Then things went sideways. Goldie has since revealed that Bonito Cavalo picked up a physical problem and then, with typically bad timing, made it worse by kicking a wall. That kind of setback can shelve a horse for months, and it did. It has now been 28 months since his last win.

His recent form makes uncomfortable reading — finishing 8th, 10th, 9th, 7th, 8th and 11th across his last six races, none of them close. But context matters here. Goldie spoke warmly about the horse as recently as May this year, saying he's back cantering and that the long break might actually have helped. Sprinters — short-distance horses — often keep filling out physically as they age, and Goldie believes the time away could see him come back stronger rather than rustier.

The partnership with jockey Paul Mulrennan is worth noting too. Together they have won 6 of their 23 races — that's 26%, or roughly 1 in every 4 times they team up. In a sport where a 1-in-10 win rate is considered solid, that kind of chemistry between horse and rider is genuinely significant. Bonito Cavalo has spent most of his career competing at the lower end of the racing ladder, winning 5 of 22 races at that level — roughly 1 in 4 — which tells you he's a reliable performer when the conditions suit, even if he's never been asked to mix it with the big names.

The question now is simply whether he can rediscover that 2024 form. Newcastle, normal ground, Mulrennan in the saddle — get those three things together and there's a horse here capable of turning heads again.