Joker De Mai

What makes that Leicester win worth knowing about is how it came to happen. His jockey and owner, David Maxwell, had not even planned to run him. It was only after trainer Jamie Moore put in some work with the horse at Lingfield and rang to say he simply had to run that Maxwell relented. He did, and Joker De Mai delivered. That kind of story — a reluctant entry turning into a winner — says something about a horse that can surprise you when conditions are right. Those conditions, as it turns out, involve a bit of cut in the ground. On wet or soft going, he has won 2 from 6 races, a 33% win rate, which is dramatically better than his overall record.

The man who knows him best in the saddle is Maxwell himself, who has ridden the horse in 9 of his 14 races and accounts for both wins. That shared history between horse and rider matters, particularly because the pair have a specific and ambitious target in mind. Trainer Clive Boultbee-Brooks, who operates a small but productive yard in Woolhope, Herefordshire — nine winners already this season — has been pointing Joker De Mai at the Foxhunters' Chase at Aintree, one of the most prestigious races in the hunter chase calendar. The horse has chase experience from France, at Auteuil, which is considered a serious track. Getting him qualified and ready for that kind of occasion has shaped the whole season around him.

There is a gentle tension in the record: at Class 3 level, the tier he most often competes at, he has won none of his six attempts. But the plan was never really about those races. They are stepping stones toward something bigger, and at 7, Joker De Mai is exactly the right age to be aiming at a race like Aintree. He raced just yesterday, so the dream is still very much alive.