Earnest Belief

The recent form is telling. In the last six races, Earnest Belief has been placed in five of them—mostly thirds and a couple of fourths—with just one unplaced run mixed in. That's not the record of a horse going backwards; it's one that keeps turning up and doing a solid job, just not quite good enough to win. Racing at Class 4 level, the horse has had six chances at this grade and hasn't broken through, which suggests this is about where its ceiling is. The trainer, Donald McCain, runs a strong yard out of Cholmondeley in Cheshire and has sent out 55 winners this season, so Earnest Belief is in competent hands. What it needs now is a break in its favour—a race where the pace suits, where the opposition slips slightly, where things finally go right. It raced just a day ago, so it's clearly still in the mix and being given chances. Whether Earnest Belief will ever find the winning post remains to be seen, but the consistency is there to build on.