Dancing In Paris

The telling detail is Ascot. Dancing In Paris has won 2 of its 5 races at that track, a win rate of 40 per cent that stands out sharply against its overall record. Winning there as recently as five weeks ago suggests the horse still has pace and sharpness — not a tired old campaigner going through the motions. It also seems to thrive when the ground is normal, winning 3 of 13 races on such conditions (23 per cent), and performs best at distances between seven furlongs and a mile, where it has won 1 of 3 races. Those are the kinds of specific strengths worth noting when you're trying to work out where this horse will next find the winners' enclosure.

Recent form tells a messier story. In its last six outings, Dancing In Paris has managed just one win and one place — the win coming within that window, the place suggesting it can still run respectably but has had stretches of underperformance. It raced just a day ago, so it is still very much active and being given regular opportunities by Williams's Worcestershire yard, which has been in fine form with 96 winners sent out this season. The jockey Dougie Costello, who has ridden it ten times, has partnered the horse to just one win, a 10 per cent success rate that hints at better results when other hands take the reins. Dancing In Paris looks like a horse best watched at Ascot on normal ground — that is where the form lives.