Allibaba

The training operation behind him is Adrian Paul Keatley, based at Ryedale in North Yorkshire, and the yard is having a productive season with 40 winners already on the board. That context matters — when a yard is firing, horses in good form tend to stay in good form, and Allibaba looks like he is benefiting from a stable operating with confidence.

One detail worth noting is that Allibaba does his best racing on normal ground. He has won 2 of his 7 races in those conditions — that is nearly 1 in every 3, which for a horse with his overall record is a striking turnaround. On other ground, he has nothing to show for his efforts. So when the track is riding well and the conditions are fair, he becomes a genuinely different proposition.

There is one small puzzle in his profile. His regular partner in the saddle, Thomas Dowson, has ridden him five times without a winner between them. Yet both of Allibaba's career wins have come — presumably with someone else in the irons — suggesting the horse has found his best self through a change somewhere. He has also spent most of his career competing in Class 5 races, the lower end of the scale, where he has strangely managed zero wins from six attempts. His victories have come when he has stepped slightly outside that comfort zone, which is the kind of quirk that keeps racing interesting.

At 8 years old, horses are not usually getting sharper — but Allibaba, racing just yesterday and with back-to-back wins this month, seems to be very much the exception right now.