Dontworrywegotthis

The recent form tells the same story. In the last six outings, the best finishing position recorded is fifth, with a seventh and two sixth-place finishes filling out the rest. The dashes in between indicate races where the horse did not complete the course. Jockey Tabitha Worsley has been in the saddle for 12 of those 14 races and is yet to trouble the judge on board — zero wins from a dozen attempts together. It would be unfair to lay that at Worsley's door. Some partnerships simply reflect what the horse is able to give on any given day.

Trainer Georgie Howell operates out of Tenbury Wells in Worcestershire, and the yard has managed one winner so far this season. Dontworrywegotthis has spent the majority of its career — ten of its fourteen races — at Class 5 level, which is the entry-level tier of British racing. These are the races designed to give horses like this a realistic shot at competing. And yet the record there reads the same: zero from ten. To put that in perspective, even horses who win only occasionally at this level might manage one from every eight or ten attempts. Fourteen races without a single win or place finish at any level is genuinely rare, and not in the way the yard — sorry, the team — would be hoping for.

The horse raced just yesterday, which at least confirms it is still sound and still showing up. There is something almost admirable about that. Whatever Dontworrywegotthis lacks in results, it is not absence. It keeps turning up, which is more than can be said for plenty of others. Whether the name was chosen with misplaced optimism or a knowing wink, it has aged into something closer to a punchline — a very affectionate one, but a punchline all the same.