Langton Wold

What makes Langton Wold interesting is not what he has done, but what his trainer sees him doing next. Brian Ellison's Norton yard, which has already sent out 43 winners this season, has bigger plans for this horse than the Flat alone. The trainer runs him across two codes—races on the grass and over hurdles—and intends to try him over fences as well, with novice chasing lined up for next season. Over the shorter distances where Langton Wold does his best work, at seven furlongs to a mile, he has won 1 of 6 races (17 per cent), which is markedly better than his overall record. His usual jockey, Ben Robinson, has ridden him six times and won once together (also 17 per cent), suggesting they work well as a pair. The plan is to find softer ground over hurdles at places like Cartmel later in May, then return him to the Flat for the summer before schooling him over bigger obstacles. For a horse that has not won in his last six runs, that kind of belief from the yard speaks volumes.