City Of God

The partnership with jockey Sam James is arguably the most encouraging thread to pull on. In 5 races together they have won once, which is a 20% win rate — 1 in every 5 — and that actually outpaces the horse's overall record by some distance. When a jockey wins at that rate on a horse that wins at 9% overall, it suggests something clicks between the two of them that does not always show up elsewhere.

City of God is trained by Michael Attwater, whose yard sits just outside Epsom in Surrey — one of the most storied addresses in British racing, best known as the home of the Derby. Attwater has sent out 27 winners this season, which tells you this is a functioning, productive operation rather than a small string just making up the numbers. The horse raced just one day ago, so it is firmly in the middle of a campaign right now, even if the recent form figures — 5, 8, 5, 8, 8 in the last five completed runs — show a horse that has not been threatening the front of the field. The one blank in the sequence suggests a race where it did not finish or was withdrawn.

The honest summary is that City of God has shown enough to suggest it can win — it already has — but the level it has been competing at has largely exposed its limitations so far. For it to become a more interesting proposition, something probably needs to change: the track, the conditions, the trip, or simply a drop to softer company. The Southwell win remains the one day everything came together, and the question for Attwater and the team is how to find those conditions again.