Ike Sport

His record reads five wins and fifteen places from 33 races — he wins about 1 in every 6 or 7 races, which sounds modest until you notice where those wins have come. Two of his five victories have arrived at the top level of British racing, Class 2 contests at Worcester and Sandown Park. That is the kind of company that separates the useful horses from the ones that simply make up the numbers. Ike Sport belongs in those races, and he keeps proving it. His most recent win came at Aintree this week, which is as good an address as jump racing gets.

Worcester is worth highlighting specifically. He has won 2 of his 5 races there — that is a 40% win rate, against a career average closer to 15%. Horses that have a particular affinity for a specific track are genuinely rare, and a trainer who knows his horse will plan a season around that kind of record. Mulholland clearly does plan carefully around Ike Sport, protecting him from the worst of the winter weather and picking races where he can be competitive, as he explained during a stable visit in late 2023.

Sam Twiston-Davies has been in the saddle for 11 of those 33 races, winning twice together — a partnership that works even if it has not quite crackled with the frequency you might hope for. But the stability of a regular jockey matters, and there is clearly trust on both sides.

Mulholland, based in Limpley Stoke in Wiltshire, has been firing on all cylinders this season with 60 winners from the yard. After Aintree this week, he was characteristically straight about what Ike Sport represents: a good, solid horse who travels well, competes at the best meetings, and has given his owners far more than they ever paid for. At eight years old, with a winning run of form and a trainer who clearly knows how to keep him fresh, Ike Sport looks like a horse with more to give yet.