Shipshape

Both wins have come in the last six weeks. The first arrived at Southwell on 15 April, and then just this week Shipshape followed up at Hamilton Park on 27 May — racing as recently as yesterday. Back-to-back wins at different tracks is not something every horse manages, and doing it within a month suggests this is a horse in the kind of form that trainers dream about.

The most striking number in Shipshape's record is what happens over a longer trip. At distances between a mile and six furlongs and two miles, it has won 2 from 5 — that is a 40% win rate, which is genuinely exceptional. For context, a trainer who wins 40% of races at any level would be considered one of the best in the business. Shipshape is not the biggest name in the sport, but over the right distance, it is as reliable as they come.

There is one puzzle in the record worth noting. Typically, Shipshape runs in Class 5 races — the bread-and-butter level of the sport — and has yet to win one, drawing a blank from five attempts at that grade. Both victories have come elsewhere. That quirk is worth keeping an eye on, though it clearly has not stopped the horse from winning races and it certainly has not dented the momentum of this current run.

Bernard Llewellyn trains Shipshape from a yard in Fochriw, Mid Glamorgan, and the operation is having a productive season — 10 winners already sent out. A small Welsh yard turning out a horse in this kind of form, winning at tracks across Britain in the space of six weeks, is exactly the sort of story that gets people talking.