Eben Zaabeel

The most telling partnership on his record is with jockey Jim Crowley, one of the more respected riders in the sport. Together they have lined up seven times and have yet to win — though in fairness, Crowley is working with a horse that hasn't won at all. Eben Zaabeel competes mostly in Class 4 races, which sit in the middle tier of British racing — not the headline events, but not the bottom rung either. His record there is five races, zero wins.

His trainer, A.J. Martin, operates out of Summerhill in County Meath and has sent out 15 winners already this season, so the yard clearly knows how to find the winner's circle. Martin has spoken warmly about Eben Zaabeel, describing him as a big, galloping type of horse who might be well suited to longer distances — a mile and a half or more. The trainer has also pointed to the horse's good attitude and his family background as reasons for quiet optimism, and noted that his early outings were not a fair reflection of what the horse can do. The underlying belief, then, is that experience and time will unlock something better.

That makes Eben Zaabeel something of a project horse — a horse whose the yard believe the results don't yet match the potential. Whether that optimism is well-founded is the question. Eleven races without a win is a significant tally, and the drift toward 10th, 11th, and 14th in recent outings is hard to put a positive spin on. Still, those two second-place finishes earlier in the sequence show he can compete. A horse that places is at least in the conversation. Right now, Eben Zaabeel is the kind of runner you watch with interest rather than confidence — waiting to see if the promise the trainer glimpsed ever fully arrives on a racecourse.