Gooloogong

Across his full career, the numbers are genuinely solid. Five wins and seven places from 22 races amounts to a 23% win rate — roughly 1 in every 4 or 5 races ends with him in the winner's enclosure — and that kind of consistency at Class 4 level, where he has won 2 from 6, tells you he competes well at a decent standard without ever quite threatening the big occasions. His career started with a win at Navan in March 2023, and back then there was real optimism around the yard. The stable representative at Navan described him as progressing nicely over the winter and suggested he would fit into the trials, while Baker himself floated the idea of the Queen's Vase. That those ambitions haven't fully materialised makes it all the more interesting that he has quietly built a career on doing one thing well: turning up at Kempton and winning.

His recent form underlines just how in-form he is right now. Of his last six races, he has won two — including a victory at Kempton as recently as three weeks ago — and that 4-1-15-11-1-3 sequence over his last six outings tells the story of a horse who can be inconsistent but is clearly in good nick at this moment. He raced just yesterday, which means Baker is keeping him busy, always a sign of confidence from a yard that has already sent out 14 winners this season. The trainer clearly knows when a horse is in the mood, and right now, Gooloogong appears to be very much in the mood.