Dyno Dave

His one career win came at Exeter on 17 March, just seven weeks ago, and it was a long time coming. He had raced five times at Class 4 level — the bread-and-butter tier of jump racing — without winning, so that breakthrough felt genuinely earned. Exeter is a sharp, undulating track in the West Country that suits horses who jump well and travel efficiently, and Dyno Dave clearly took to it. His recent form reads 2, pulled up, 1, 5, 4, pulled up — which tells you this is a horse that can run well on his day but is not always at his best, and there have been a couple of runs where things simply did not go to plan.

What makes him interesting going forward is what his trainer said back in October. Henderson described him as a "fine, big individual" who was well placed in the ratings — off a mark of 105, meaning the race conditions were set up to give him a genuine chance — and ready for longer trips of around three miles. That is exactly the kind of horse who can improve sharply once conditions click into place: a big, physical type getting into races at a fair weight, over a distance that suits him. The win at Exeter looks like the first chapter rather than the full story.

At eight, he is not young — most horses are at or near their peak by this point — but jump horses, particularly over fences, often mature later than their flat-racing cousins, and there are plenty of examples of horses finding their feet in their eighth or ninth year. Henderson's yard clearly has plenty of options lined up for him, and the owners are being promised some fun along the way. Whether Dyno Dave delivers on that promise remains to be seen, but he arrives at this point in the season having finally broken his duck, and that counts for something.