Chiedozie

The recent form tells a familiar story. In its last six races, the best Chiedozie has managed is a third, with a string of mid-pack finishes either side of it. That third place is encouraging in one sense — it shows the ability is still there — but a sequence of 8-10-3-4-6-7 doesn't suggest a horse on the verge of a breakthrough. It raced just yesterday, which means the team clearly believes there's still something to run for.

Josephine Gordon has been the regular partner, riding Chiedozie in five of its races together, but that partnership is yet to click into a win either. Phil McEntee trains from Newmarket in Suffolk — one of the most famous training centres in the world — and his yard has hit the ground running this season, sending out 18 winners. That makes Chiedozie something of an outlier in a stable that clearly knows how to get a horse to the front.

The bulk of its racing has come at Class 6, the entry-level tier of British racing, and in 14 races at that level it has still not managed to win. That's a striking statistic. Class 6 is where horses go to find races they can be competitive in, so to have raced there 14 times without a victory tells you something honest about where Chiedozie sits in the pecking order. The hope, presumably, is that the right race on the right day eventually comes along. Whether patience has a limit is a question only the team can answer.