Creative Dancer

The recent form makes for difficult reading. Over the last six races, Creative Dancer's best effort was a third place, and since then it has finished sixth, seventh, seventh, and eighth — a sequence that suggests it is currently running below even its own modest best. It raced just one day ago, so it is clearly a horse in active training and not short of opportunities.

The one genuinely positive thread here is who is doing the training. Ian Patrick Donoghue, based at Clonalvy in County Meath, has sent out 26 winners already this season — a yard clearly operating with real confidence and form. When a stable is firing like that, even its lesser lights tend to be well-prepared and properly placed. Creative Dancer may not be the stable star, but it is in professional hands that know how to find a race for every kind of horse. Whether those hands can find the right opportunity for a winless nine-year-old remains the question worth watching.