Rula Bula

Put her on wet or muddy ground and she transforms. Two wins from just 5 races on soft or heavy ground — that's a 40% win rate — suggests this is a horse that genuinely relishes a proper winter test. Her trainer Jonjo O'Neill Snr has noted she has the pace to drop back to two miles on soft ground, which means the yard have options depending on what the weather serves up. At her best level, Class 4, she has won 2 of 4 races — exactly half. That is an impressive conversion rate and suggests she is comfortably good enough at that grade when conditions suit.

Her recent campaign has an interesting shape to it. She ran three below-par races in a row before winning at Carlisle in November 2025, and the yard has since revealed why: there was a small physical issue that was quietly sorted out. Once fixed, she went back to Carlisle and won — the trainer described her as well placed on her old form, and she duly delivered. Her recent sequence of 5-7-5-1-5-2 shows a horse still finding consistency, but that second place in her most recent run suggests she remains in the mix.

The partnership with jockey Jonjo O'Neill Jr is worth noting too. He has ridden her in 10 of her 13 races and won 3 of them — a win rate of 30%, which is meaningfully higher than her overall career figure. That familiarity between horse and rider counts for something. The O'Neill yard, based near Cheltenham, has sent out 51 winners this season alone, so Rula Bula is operating within a confident, in-form stable. She raced just yesterday and is very much an active project. With a soft-ground winter likely to come and a yard that clearly believes in her, she is one to keep an eye on.