Bobbarelli

The recent form makes for interesting reading. Four of the last six runs have produced a second or third place, which tells you this is a horse that races well and finds itself in the action at the finish. It just keeps finding one too good. For a horse with no wins on its record, that level of consistency is genuinely unusual — plenty of horses with zero wins simply fade out of contention, but Bobbarelli clearly has ability. It is the kind of horse that makes you think the win is coming, which is probably what keeps the team running it.

That team is the Twiston-Davies yard in Naunton, Gloucestershire, run by Nigel and Willy Twiston-Davies — one of the more established operations in jump racing. With 61 winners already sent out this season, this is a yard that knows how to get a horse ready to win. The fact that Bobbarelli raced just one day ago shows it is in good shape and being campaigned actively, and a yard firing at that rate will be backing its own judgment when they keep running a horse that has yet to break its duck.

The big question with Bobbarelli is a simple one: can it convert? Finishing second or third is fine, but at nine years old, the window for finding the right race is not endless. The good news is that the form is pointing in the right direction, and a trainer with 61 winners on the board this season clearly still believes in the horse. When it does win — and the recent run of placings suggests it is closer than ever — it will have been a long time coming.