Ubatuba

What makes those numbers more meaningful is the level he has been winning at. His strongest results have come in Class 4 races, where he has won 2 of 3 starts — that is two wins from every three races at that grade, which is a dominant record. But the conversation around Ubatuba has already moved well beyond that level. Trainer Olly Murphy, whose yard at Wilmcote in Warwickshire has sent out 146 winners this season alone — one of the strongest tallies in the training ranks — has spoken openly about targeting a Grade 2 race at Haydock as a stepping stone to the Cheltenham Festival. That is a serious jump in class, and Murphy has the firepower to make it count.

The family angle adds something extra. Ubatuba is owned by Nick Sutton and ridden by his son Ben, who has been on board for all five races and shares that 40% win rate with the horse. After the Leicester win, the younger Sutton was candid about what Cheltenham would mean to him — he has ridden there as an amateur, but described a potential Grade 1 ride as his first proper crack at the Festival's top tier. "It'll be pretty epic," he said, which is about as honest an assessment as you will hear from a jockey. Murphy described Ubatuba as one of the two nicest horses in his yard alongside Santos Blue, and noted that the horse's speed figures — a measure of how quickly he ran relative to the race — have caught the eye.

After a short break of 33 days since his last run, the next few months will tell us a great deal. If Ubatuba runs respectably at Haydock against stronger opposition, Cheltenham follows. For a horse with just five races under his belt, that is an exciting trajectory.