Bunting

What makes Bunting's situation genuinely interesting is the yard it sits in. Willie Mullins, based in Co Carlow, is one of the most powerful training operations in jump racing anywhere in the world, and this season alone the yard has sent out 233 winners. That is an extraordinary number — it means Mullins is winning races almost every single day the sport is running. Being trained there is no small thing, because horses in that yard get the best of everything. The question Bunting poses is a familiar one in sport: what happens to a decent but unspectacular performer when they are surrounded by genuine stars? The standard of competition Bunting faces is reflected in the Class 1 record — three runs at the top level in Britain, zero wins.

At six years old, Bunting is not especially young, but is still at an age where improvement is possible. The horse remains active, having raced just 23 days ago, so this is very much an ongoing story rather than a career in its final chapter. Whether Bunting can find its way back to a winner's enclosure — perhaps at a track or in conditions that suit — is the kind of quiet subplot that keeps racing interesting even when the headlines belong to someone else.