Slipway

The most striking number in Slipway's record is what happens when the ground gets wet. On soft, muddy ground, he has won 5 of 11 races — nearly half. That is not a coincidence; that is a horse with a genuine preference, and any trainer worth their salt will be watching the weather forecast before entering him. He also has a special relationship with Kempton Park, winning 2 of his 4 races there, including a win as recently as February 2025. When a horse keeps coming back to the same track and keeps performing, that tells you something about how the course suits him.

His trainer Ben Pauling has spoken openly about the journey to get Slipway running with confidence. The horse had a breathing issue — his palate would flip during races, essentially shutting him down when he needed to dig in — and a wind operation was the solution. Pauling described the Kempton win in February as being "about getting him to run a race and trust himself", which is a telling phrase. It suggests this is a horse with real ability that simply needed the physical problem fixed before it could show itself properly. The cross-country at Cheltenham — a longer, more demanding test over unusual fences — is now the target.

His regular jockey Ben Jones has been aboard for 8 of his races, winning 2 of them, a 25% win rate that mirrors Slipway's overall record exactly. Recent form shows a blank, then a couple of fifth places, a fourth, a win, and a ninth — not the most consistent sequence, but the trainer's comments suggest those runs were stepping stones rather than failures. With a wind op done, a Kempton win banked, and Cheltenham now in his sights, Slipway at 11 is apparently far from finished.