Choice Runner

His recent form makes for tough reading. In his last six races he has finished third, pulled up, and rattled off a string of double-figure positions — suggesting he has gone through a rough patch and is currently well off his best. He raced just yesterday, so he is clearly in active training and being kept busy.

Dan Skelton, who trains him from his yard in Alcester, Warwickshire, is one of the most prolific operations in British racing right now — 194 winners in the current season alone is a remarkable volume, roughly one every other day. That kind of production does not happen by accident. Skelton's brother Harry rides Choice Runner most often, having been in the saddle for five of his eleven races, and the pair have yet to click in the way a trainer and jockey partnership sometimes can. When Skelton spoke about Choice Runner last November, he flagged the horse's potential even in the absence of a win, noting that he had shown enough in his early races to suggest there was a decent horse in there worth developing over time. That is a patient, long-game view — and from a yard this successful, it carries some weight.

For now, Choice Runner operates at Class 4 level, which is the everyday bread-and-butter tier of British racing rather than the big occasions. He has run six times at that level without winning. The honest truth is that he has not shown the form yet to justify great optimism, but he is trained by someone who knows how to get horses to fulfil their potential. Whether Choice Runner ever does remains to be seen.