Assured

The recent form makes for honest reading. In its last six races, Assured has finished fifth, fifth, seventh, sixth, tenth, and fifth — solid enough to avoid embarrassment, but consistently finding several horses too good on the day. It raced just yesterday, which tells you this is an active, busy campaign rather than one being carefully nursed along.

Tom Gretton trains the horse from his yard in Inkberrow, Worcestershire, and it is worth noting that the yard has sent out 13 winners this season — so this is not a team without firepower. Gretton clearly knows how to get horses to the winner's enclosure. Assured, to this point, simply has not been one of them. It has raced three times at Class 6 level — the entry-level tier of British racing — and is still waiting for a first win there too, which means it has not yet managed to find a race soft enough to break its duck.

None of this is damning. Some horses take time to click, and nine races at five years old means there is still track to be covered. But for now, Assured is the kind of horse whose most interesting story might still be ahead of it — and anyone who has watched a long wait finally end will tell you those moments are worth sticking around for.