Mother Ship

The most recent stretch of form tells a mixed story. A second place in there is encouraging — that is a horse that went close — but it sits alongside an eighth, a fifth, and a seventh, which paints a picture of a horse that can run well one day and disappoint the next. It raced just yesterday, so it is clearly kept busy and remains an active part of the yard's string.

Mr Paddy Hanlon has ridden Mother Ship in 13 of those 18 races, making him very much the regular partner, and that loyalty has yet to be rewarded with a winner between them. Thirteen races together with no win is a long run without a breakthrough, though the placed efforts suggest the pair have not been disgraced. Paddy Hanlon is attached to the yard in name as well as practice — trainer John Joseph Hanlon runs the operation out of Bagenalstown in County Carlow, so this is very much a family affair.

John Joseph Hanlon's yard has sent out 11 winners so far this season, which shows the stable knows how to get horses to win. That makes Mother Ship something of an outlier — surrounded by winners but yet to become one. Whether the right race is still out there waiting, or whether three places is ultimately the ceiling, is the question the team will keep trying to answer every time the horse heads to the track.