Run This Way

The numbers back up just how well she handles wet and muddy conditions. On soft or heavy ground, she has won 4 of 11 races — that is a 36% win rate, which is extraordinary. Roughly one in every three times she runs in those conditions, she wins. Compare that to her overall career record of 7 wins from 42 races, and you start to understand what a difference the ground makes. Ripon has also been a happy hunting ground: two wins from just three visits there, which is about as good a course record as you will find.

Jockey Graham Lee has been her most regular partner, riding her in 12 of her 42 races and winning twice — a win rate of roughly 1 in 6, which mirrors her overall career average. That is not a flashy partnership on paper, but it is a consistent one, and Midgley clearly trusts him aboard her.

What makes this story particularly interesting is the dip before the rise. Her trainer is candid about the fact that she underperformed throughout the whole of last season without anyone quite knowing why, and that a wind operation over the winter was needed to get her right. She first showed what she could be worth back when Lee rode her at Thirsk a couple of years ago — at that point the yard believed she could develop into a serious performer. Last year that looked like wishful thinking. This year, it looks like they were right all along. With 39 winners already sent out by Midgley's yard this season, Run This Way is far from the only horse in form there — but on the evidence of recent weeks, she might just be the most exciting.