Cherry Hill

That single win came at Kempton Park in September 2023, and the story behind it is worth knowing. Trainer Dominic Ffrench Davis had tried her over a mile earlier that month, but she ran out of steam before the line. He brought her back to seven furlongs at the same track and she got up by a neck — one of those moments where a trainer gets the call exactly right. At the distances she seems to suit best, seven furlongs to a mile, she has won 1 from 8 races, which works out at around 12% — not spectacular, but it tells you that when conditions align, she is capable of competing.

The problem is that moment of alignment has not come again since. It has now been 33 months since that Kempton win, and her last six runs have produced finishes of tenth, twelfth, tenth, eighth, thirteenth, and tenth — form that makes for difficult reading. She is not disgracing herself at the bottom of the pile, but she is consistently finishing in the mid-to-lower half of the field rather than threatening the front. She races mainly at Class 6, which is the entry level of British racing, and even there — 1 win from 12 races at 8% — the results have been modest.

Ffrench Davis operates out of Lambourn in Berkshire, one of Britain's most famous racing villages, and his yard has sent out 10 winners this season, so there is plenty of ability in the stable. Cherry Hill raced just yesterday, which means she is still active and being targeted at races, and there is something admirable about a horse that keeps turning up. Whether another Kempton moment is on the cards is genuinely hard to say — but the trainer knows exactly what she needs, and if she finds herself back at seven furlongs on a good day, it would be unwise to write her off entirely.