Whistle Stop Tour

His home is the Milnathort yard of Lucinda Russell and Michael Scudamore in Perth and Kinross, a team that has sent out 49 winners already this season. That is a stable operating at full throttle, and Whistle Stop Tour has been one of their more consistent tools. His most effective partner has been Derek Fox, who has ridden him 10 times and won on 4 of those — that is a 40% win rate together, which is a remarkable number and speaks to a genuine understanding between horse and rider.

If you want to know where to find Whistle Stop Tour at his very best, go to Ayr. He has won 2 of his 6 races there, which might not sound like much until you consider that most horses barely win anywhere. He last won at Ayr on 2 January 2025, and the team clearly see it as his spiritual home. His best racing tends to come at Class 3 level — one step below the very top — where he has won 2 of 8 races, a 25% win rate that is genuinely competitive.

The last 16 months have been a bumpy road. He has not won since that Ayr success, and his recent run of results — a fall, a pull-up, two fifths, a third, and a second — tells the story of a horse that has been through something. His trainer has been candid about it: a near-disaster at the Cheltenham Festival's Ultima race set the season back badly. But the word from the yard is that he has returned looking stronger and more like himself, with genuine ambitions for the Scottish National and, in the dreams of at least one owner, the 2026 Grand National. He raced just yesterday, so whatever comes next, the journey is very much still happening.