Traveling Soldier

The win came in a Class 5 race, which is the everyday, bread-and-butter level of the sport — the kind of race most horses spend most of their careers in. He's run ten times at that level and won once, a 10% win rate, or 1 from every 10 attempts. That's not spectacular, but it's honest. What's encouraging is his recent form: looking at his last six races, he's finished first, second, third, pulled up, pulled up, third — so the good stuff is at the front of that sequence, suggesting he's in the better form of his life right now.

Sean Bowen has been on his back for 10 of his 15 races, winning once together at a rate of 1 in every 10. Bowen is one of the leading jump jockeys in Britain, so the fact he keeps getting the ride suggests the yard believes in the horse. That yard is Olly Murphy's operation at Wilmcote in Warwickshire — a serious training outfit that has sent out 146 winners already this season, which is a significant number. When a stable of that size and output keeps running a horse, they clearly see something worth persevering with.

Traveling Soldier raced just yesterday, so he is right in the middle of a busy spell. At eight years old, with a career-best win only recently behind him and his form looking sharper than it has in a while, this is actually a pretty interesting moment to be following him. He's not a star, but he's a battler — and sometimes that's the most enjoyable kind of horse to watch.