Book Of Life

The broader picture is one of honest, persistent effort without much reward. Eight places from those 27 races tells you this is a horse that competes and stays involved — it is not simply trailing in last — but getting to the front has proved elusive. The best distance appears to be somewhere between a mile and a mile and two furlongs, where Book Of Life has run 14 times and managed that solitary win, a 7% win rate or roughly one from every fourteen at those trips. Interestingly, the horse has run nine times at Class 5 — the level where most horses of this profile tend to find it easiest — and has not won once there. That is a slightly puzzling detail. Usually a horse finds its level eventually; Book Of Life seems to find the level and then sit just below the bar.

Ryan Kavanagh has partnered the horse seven times without a win between them, which is unfortunate for both. The recent six-race sequence reads 2-6-4-4-blank-4 — a second place is encouraging, but the horse has not converted that into a win, and the blank in the sequence suggests at least one run where things went badly wrong. Trainer Patrick Morris, based in Prescott, Merseyside, has had a productive season with 21 winners from the yard, so it is not as though the operation is struggling — Book Of Life simply has not been the one to contribute to that tally. With the horse having raced just yesterday, the yard will at least know where they stand heading into the next chapter of a career that, so far, has been more about the journey than the destination.