Ballyearl

The last six outings tell the familiar story. After a fifth-place finish most recently, the pattern before that shows mostly mid-field efforts and one eighth-place result — not the kind of form that suggests a breakthrough is imminent. It is now 17 months since that sole win at Tipperary, a gap that underlines how hard it has been to get back to the winner's circle. Yet Ballyearl remains active, raced as recently as yesterday, which means the yard still believes there is a race to be won somewhere.

Trainer L J Morgan, based at Waltham On The Wolds in Leicestershire, has had reasonable success this season with 14 winners to the yard's name overall. That suggests Morgan knows how to get horses ready, even if Ballyearl has not quite answered the call in recent months. Sometimes a horse like this needs the right race at the right time — the right track, the right conditions, the right field — to spark again. For now, Ballyearl is one to monitor rather than rely on, a horse with the credentials to win but not yet the current form to back it up.