Diligently

Cox trains out of Lambourn and has sent out 47 winners already this season, so this is not a quiet backwater operation. Diligently sits in a busy, successful yard, and the trainer has spoken warmly about how much stronger the horse looked after his first winter, with real optimism that the York win was just the start. On dry ground, that optimism looks well-founded: Diligently has won 2 of his 5 races on fast, dry conditions — a 40% win rate that is genuinely striking when his overall record is 2 wins from 12 races, or roughly 1 in every 6.

The overall picture is of a horse still finding his feet at the top level. He typically runs in Class 4 company — a decent but not elite level — and has won just 1 of those 5 races. But his recent form tells a more encouraging story. His last six results, reading from most recent backwards, read: a win, a second place, a first place, then a couple of poor runs, then another second. The two rough patches are sandwiched around some genuinely good performances, and the most recent one — a win at Windsor just last week — suggests he is back in the kind of form that made York so exciting. At four years old, with a trainer who clearly believes there is more to come, Diligently is a horse worth keeping an eye on.