Alcaraz

The most telling detail is where Alcaraz runs. In the three Class 4 races (the tougher, more competitive contests), it has failed to trouble the judge at all. Step down to easier company and it performs marginally better, but still without a victory. Recent form tells the same story: a mix of mid-field finishes and the occasional place, with that respectable fifth-place effort a couple of races ago standing out. Even that, though, is the high point of a sequence that amounts to six races without winning.

Trainer George Baker, based at Epsom Downs, has had a decent season overall — fourteen winners so far — but Alcaraz does not appear to be among his live prospects. At seven years old, horses are not getting any younger, and without a win on the record, patience may be wearing thin. That said, the horse was back out competing just yesterday, so the yard have not given up on finding a race it can actually win. For a horse this far down the pecking order, that is perhaps as much hope as you can reasonably ask for.