Master Builder

Master Builder is a five-year-old with a career record of 2 wins and 6 places from 13 races, which works out at roughly 1 win in every 6 or 7 outings. That is not a horse setting the world alight on paper, but the context matters. He has spent virtually his entire career competing in Class 2 races — one step below the very top level in Britain — and winning even 1 in every 10 at that grade, as he has done, is harder than it sounds. Most horses at that level never win at all.

His finest moment came at Haydock Park in September 2024, in a race called the Melrose, and Menuisier's words afterwards paint a vivid picture: he said you could see Master Builder picking up the bridle and travelling better than anything else in the race. That is jockey-speak for a horse that looked almost too comfortable, cruising while others were working. He added that the wet, cut-up ground was expected to suit him — and it did. William Buick, who has partnered him in five of his thirteen races and won once together, has clearly got a feel for what makes this horse tick.

The challenge now is that Master Builder has not won in his last six races, and he has been off the track for around five months — roughly 163 days. Returns from a long break can go either way. Menuisier is pointing him at the one-mile-six-furlong race at Goodwood this Saturday, using it as a stepping stone. Beyond that, there is a tentative entry for the Ebor — one of the great staying handicaps of the season — though the trainer is honest that at a rating of 94, it looks ambitious unless Saturday produces something special. The door is not closed, but it needs a push.