Davy Crockett

The horse tends to run in bursts of improvement followed by spells where things do not quite click. His last six races tell the story: a win most recently, then a spell of middling efforts — two fifth-place finishes, a fourteenth, and a fifteenth — before that victory at Tramore broke the pattern. Mark Walsh, the jockey who rides him most often, has partnered him six times but has only won once together, which suggests that while they work well enough on their day, the connection is not yet deeply established.

What stands out from the trainer's comments is the raw jumping ability. After winning at Galway earlier in the year, Mullins was emphatic about the way Davy Crockett attacked his hurdles, "as though he'd been doing it all his life", and even when he made mistakes — like nearly falling at the second last — he had the athleticism to recover and "wing the last". The trainer sees something genuine here: he is already thinking about Grade 1 novice races like the Moscow Flyer at Punchestown in February. A horse not yet two years into his career, with genuine class stamina, and now off the back of a recent win — that is a horse worth watching in the second half of the season.