Highwind

The one moment Highwind has lived up to it came at Punchestown in January 2024, when he won in a way that turned heads. Jockey Sean O'Keeffe was effusive afterwards, noting that the horse made mistakes at the last two obstacles and still found extra to win going away — "won his race twice," as O'Keeffe put it. That kind of resilience, the ability to mess up a jump and still accelerate clear, is exactly what separates horses with real class from those just going through the motions.

The trouble is, that win is now 29 months old, and nothing close to it has followed. From his last six races, Highwind has finished fourth at best, with a string of double-figure positions in between. Across his nine career races he has won just once — roughly 1 in every 9 outings — and his recent form of 10th, 10th, 13th, 8th, 4th suggests a horse that is finding life at this level considerably harder than that January afternoon suggested it might. He raced just yesterday, so the team clearly still believes there is something to work with here.

Whether Highwind is a horse who simply showed his best very early, or one who is waiting for the right conditions to click again, is the question worth watching. With Mullins in his corner, he will get every chance to find an answer.