My Chiquita

What makes her story genuinely interesting is the journey that got her here. When she was at the yard of Ben Brookhouse, she was being handled with real ambition — two wins from two races over hurdles, and the team was openly talking about pointing her towards a prestigious mares' meeting at Cheltenham in April. Brookhouse described her as "still a big baby" after an early win at Sedgefield, a race they almost didn't run her in until they liked the look of the ground conditions on the morning. She then followed up at Wetherby, travelling noticeably better, and suddenly Cheltenham was a realistic conversation. For a horse described as a long-term broodmare project, that was a meaningful ambition — you don't aim at Cheltenham unless you genuinely believe in what you have.

She is now trained by James Moffatt, based in Cartmel, Cumbria, a yard that has sent out 11 winners already this season — a sign of a stable in decent form. Her recent run of results reads 1-5-5-2-2-3 going back through her last six races, which suggests she is in a good patch of form right now after what was a relatively quiet middle stretch. Her last win came at Worcester in August 2024, so it has been a while since she visited the winner's enclosure, but the placings have kept coming.

One number worth noting: in 13 races at Class 5 level — the bread-and-butter tier of jump racing — she has yet to win. Zero wins from 13 attempts is a curious stat for a horse who has won five times overall, and it hints that she may actually perform better when the competition steps up slightly and asks more of her. Some horses simply raise their game on bigger occasions. Whether she can finally break that Class 5 duck, or whether the yard target her at a level where she has already shown she can compete, will be worth watching. She raced just yesterday, so she is very much in the mix right now.