It's A Love Thing

The Pontefract win was significant for another reason: it felt like the culmination of a long process of sorting out those physical issues. England was candid that they "couldn't get to the bottom of it" for some time, but the wind surgery eventually seemed to do the job. That win came after a period of genuine frustration, and it showed a horse finally able to run to his potential rather than fighting against his own body. He also does a lot of his conditioning work in the swimming pool, which suits a horse whose feet need careful management on harder surfaces.

The place where It's A Love Thing has always looked most at home is Wolverhampton, where he has won 3 times from 13 visits — that is a win rate of roughly 1 in every 4 races at that track, compared to winning just 1 in every 6 across his whole career. That kind of attachment to a particular venue is genuinely meaningful: it suggests the track's surface and layout suits how he moves and races. He first won there back in February 2022, and Wolverhampton has remained a happy hunting ground ever since.

His current form — finishing no higher than sixth in his last six races — is modest, and he has not won since that Pontefract success over a year ago. He competes mostly at Class 5 level, which is the bread-and-butter end of the sport, and even there he wins roughly 1 in every 11 races at that level. Jockey Jonathan England, the trainer's son, has partnered him in 10 races for just 1 win together. But he raced just yesterday, which says something about a horse still very much in the thick of things at eight years old. The journey has been long and bumpy — it's the horse's sheer persistence that makes him worth following.