Ivynator

That one win came at Wolverhampton back in October 2021 — 56 months ago now — and it has not managed to repeat the trick since. Its recent form makes for sobering reading: a second place offers some encouragement, but two blank runs and a pair of finishes deep in the field suggest a horse that is struggling to recapture whatever it once had. It raced just yesterday, so it is clearly still active and still being asked the question.

The trainer has been candid about what gets the best out of this horse and what does not. Fast, dry ground is a problem — after one particularly flat run at Nottingham, the trainer was quick to point out that the quick conditions and a tight trip had conspired against it, forcing it to work hard early from an awkward draw before it simply emptied out. The message was clear: ignore that, it was everything against him. Ivynator needs longer trips, somewhere between a mile and six furlongs and two miles, and that is backed up by the numbers — at those distances it has won 1 from 8, a 12% win rate, which is meaningfully better than its overall record.

Most of its races have come at Class 5 level, which is towards the lower end of the sport's pecking order. Even there, it has won just 1 from 14, around 7%. It is not a horse rewriting any records, but it is still showing up, still finding a place finish occasionally, and still giving its trainer enough to work with. For a certain kind of racing fan, that persistence is its own kind of story.