Goodwin Face

The recent run of results tells the same story. Going back through the last six races, the sequence reads 9th, 1st, 1st, 2nd, 2nd, 3rd. In other words, one anonymous effort followed by five consecutive finishes in the top three, with wins sandwiched in the middle. For a horse that spent the earlier part of its career finding places rather than winning them, that kind of consistency is significant. Goodwin Face raced just yesterday, so it is very much a horse in the thick of a campaign right now.

There is a puzzle at the heart of this profile, though. The horse's most regular partner is jockey Rex Dingle, who has ridden Goodwin Face five times without managing a win together. Yet both victories have come — presumably with other riders in the saddle. That is not necessarily a criticism of Dingle, but it is the sort of detail that makes you lean forward and wonder about the combination. The trainer is Chris Gordon, based in Hampshire, whose yard has been in excellent shape this season with 51 winners already. A stable in that kind of form tends to know exactly what it is doing with its horses, and sending Goodwin Face to Cartmel mid-week and winning suggests a clear plan being executed well.

One slight wrinkle: at Class 5 level, which is where the horse has most often competed, the record reads zero wins from four races. Both wins have come in different company. Whether Goodwin Face has now found the right grade, or whether the recent form is simply a hot streak, is the interesting question hanging over what comes next.