Whatdeawant

The trainer partnership of Lucinda Russell and Michael Scudamore, based in Milnathort in Perth and Kinross, has sent out 49 winners this season — a yard clearly operating in decent form — and they have been candid about where things may have gone slightly wrong with this horse. In a stable tour last October, they suggested the trip had been the issue: Whatdeawant wants three miles or more to be seen at his best, and on wet, muddy ground rather than anything quick. He is not the fastest horse in the world, they admitted, but he has the ability to match it — he just needs the right conditions to show it. That kind of self-awareness from a trainer is often the first step toward getting results.

What makes that assessment credible is what the jockey said after the Navan win itself. Danny Mullins reported that Whatdeawant always felt like a horse that would get the job done, and that despite winning over what was then a shorter trip, the way he finished suggested he would actually be fine dropping back in distance once the ground got slower. In other words, the horse was doing it well within himself. A previous trainer — Willie Mullins, no less — noted that Whatdeawant simply looked smarter on a racetrack than he did at home, which is a backhanded compliment of the best kind. Some horses save it for the moment that counts.

Six races without a win is a long wait. His recent form reads seventh, second, third, fifth, third, eighth — consistent enough to suggest he belongs at this level, but without that final click into gear. He has raced three times at Class 3 level, one step below the very top, and is still searching for a win there. At 10, the window is narrowing, but a horse this honest, on the right trip, in the mud, could yet surprise people.