After Midnight

The recent form makes for difficult reading. In its last six races, the best it has managed is a fourth place, with three seventh-place finishes and two eighths filling out the rest. That kind of consistency in the wrong direction suggests the horse is running within its limits but simply not finding enough to trouble the front runners when it matters. It is active, having raced as recently as 15 days ago, so the yard are clearly still hopeful, but hope needs something to hang on to.

Jockey Harry Bannister has partnered the horse five times without a win between them, which is not unusual in itself — plenty of partnerships take time to click — but given there is no win on the board at all, it is hard to know what a breakthrough would even look like. Trainer Julian Smith operates from Tirley in Gloucestershire and has sent out just one winner so far this season, so this is a yard working hard to find its rhythm rather than one operating from a position of strength. After Midnight has run exclusively at Class 5 level, the lowest tier of British racing, going 0 from 5 at that grade. Even in races designed to give horses like this a chance, the wins have not come.

None of this means the horse should be written off entirely — sport has a habit of surprising people — but the honest picture here is of a nine-year-old that has not yet shown it can win at any level. Every race it runs without a result makes the next one a little harder to frame optimistically.