Place De La Nation

Trained by W P Mullins at Muine Bheag in County Carlow — one of the most powerful racing operations in Ireland, having sent out 220 winners already this season — Place De La Nation has form that reads like a highlight reel. Her last six races: win, second, third, second, win, win. She has barely put a foot wrong, and crucially she has been winning at the right end of that sequence. Her most recent victory came at Punchestown just this week, and her current run of form suggests she is training on rather than flattening out.

What makes her genuinely interesting is what the people around her have been saying. After her first career win at Thurles in November, jockey Paul Townend told Racing TV that she had been jumping so well early in the race that he was actually holding back — deliberately not using her ability as a jumper because he didn't want to send her to the front too soon and tire her out. When a jockey describes not being able to use her "ace card" and still wins, that is a horse with something in reserve. Townend added there was plenty of improvement still to come, which is a meaningful thing to say after a winning performance, not just a polite thing.

The bigger picture here is that she had already run at the Cheltenham Festival before any of this — finishing fifth in the Triumph Hurdle behind the winner Poniros — giving her experience of the biggest stage in jump racing before her current campaign even began. Mullins has spoken about her being a live contender for the Mares' Novices' Hurdle at the festival, and it is easy to see why. A horse who jumps exceptionally, wins with something to spare, and already knows what a Cheltenham roar feels like is exactly the profile you want going into one of racing's great occasions.