Mount Shenshan

What makes the picture a little more puzzling is the partnership with jockey Danny Mullins, who has been aboard nine times without ever steering Mount Shenshan to the winner's enclosure. Nine attempts together and nothing to show for it is a run that raises an eyebrow — though it also speaks to the difficulty of placing a horse that clearly has ability enough to place, but hasn't quite found its moment. The horse is trained by Thomas Mullins at Goresbridge in County Kilkenny, a yard that has managed two winners so far this season, so it isn't a household-name operation firing in winners every week.

Recent form shows a mixed picture: a third and a fifth in its last completed runs, with a couple of blanks (races where no placing position was recorded) mixed in. That third-place finish is a small green shoot — it suggests Mount Shenshan is still competitive enough to get into the argument — but the pattern of the last six races without a win, stretching back past that Clonmel breakthrough, suggests this is a horse you'd back each way rather than for the win. Crucially, it raced just one day ago, which means it is very much in active training and still being campaigned. At eight years old, it is not a youngster finding its feet — this is the horse as it is, and what you see is broadly what you get.