Sortudo

The career arc is worth tracing. His first win came at Tramore in November 2024, and Patrick Mullins — who rides for the yard and rode Sortudo in the Champion Bumper — described him afterwards as one of the more exciting horses in a string that is, to put it mildly, not short of talent. Being mentioned at the top end of Willie Mullins's bumper horses is not faint praise. This is a yard that has sent out 230 winners in the current season alone. When someone from that operation singles out a horse as exciting, it tends to mean something.

His most recent win came at Cork in November 2025, over hurdles — a discipline he was still finding his feet in. The trainer noted he was alone at the front approaching the final obstacle and had a look around, the kind of greenness you expect from a horse still learning the job. But the jumping throughout was good, and the view from the yard is straightforward: once the experience arrives, the ability is already there. Mullins suggested after that run that he had always felt the horse had more speed than people were giving him credit for — and that a second-place finish at Naas over two and a half miles might have been a win had the last hurdle been left in the ground that day.

He has won 2 of his last 6 races, which is a solid return, though his most recent outing — 35 days ago — saw him finish 13th, a result that sits awkwardly against the rest of his record. A short break since then suggests the team is happy to give him time to reset before asking another question. The last win was five months ago now, so there is something to prove next time out. But the foundation is there: good breeding through the sire Authorized, a trainer who has quietly flagged him as underestimated, and a record that says, more often than not, he finds a way to win.