Mojito Des Mottes

What stands out about Mojito Des Mottes is his preference for longer distances. Over races of two miles or more, he has won 1 from 4 — a 25 percent win rate that's meaningfully better than his overall record. This hints at a horse that may still be looking for the right trip and the right conditions to show what he can do. Ben Pauling, his trainer at Naunton in Gloucestershire, has built a prolific yard — 91 winners sent out this season alone — and appears to view Mojito Des Mottes as a horse with time ahead of him. After a run where the horse went too fast early and paid for it at the finish, Pauling suggested he'd learned from the experience and would benefit from a more patient approach, sitting closer to the pace rather than burning energy in the opening stages. That kind of tactical refinement, combined with the horse's apparent liking for distance, suggests his recent win at Newton Abbot may be the start of something rather than a one-off flash of form.