Mr McWhinny

Tom Ellis's yard at Rugby, Warwickshire, has been prolific this season with 30 winners already, and Mr McWhinny fits neatly into a team clearly in form. The horse clearly has a surface preference too. On normal ground, he has won four races from thirteen attempts—a 31% win rate that stands out sharply against his overall 17%. Fast or wet ground slows him down; give him standard conditions and he is a different proposition. His last win came on the kind of day that suits him, and with his current form and the season still young, there are likely more opportunities ahead.

One oddity: Jack G Gilligan has ridden him eight times without a win, yet Mr McWhinny has won four races this year. That suggests the horse runs better for other jockeys, or that those rides came during leaner periods. Either way, if Gilligan is back in the saddle, there might be value in looking elsewhere. For now, though, Mr McWhinny is one of those horses that has finally found his level late in his career, and the consistency over his last half-dozen races suggests he is not done winning yet.